Rising Smoke: Book One: Smokepaw's Quest
by VolcanicPizza
Summary: Smokepaw survived when he fell off the ledge on the Great Journey, so what will happen to him now? Well, obviously a lot. From encountering the Tribe of Rushing Water to travelling to the sun-drown-place to encountering a power-hungry rogue in a flooded Twolegplace, Smokepaw will have a lot to survive if he ever wants a hope of making it back to ShadowClan. (Complete)
1. Chapter 1: Awakening

**A/N: Alright, big update! Yippee! Make sure to tell me if you notice any continuity errors.**

Chapter One

Smokepaw stepped onto the ledge and felt it give beneath him.

He plummeted down, and his only thought was, _No, no, no, I'm not ready to join StarClan yet! Please, no..._

He hit the bottom and felt something break with a long snap. A rising wave of black plummeted over Smokepaw and everything went dark.

Some time later, Smokepaw awoke. The dark gray tom shook out his fur and went to stand, only to feel a sharp pain in his leg. He whimpered as he realized it was broken and rolled onto his side. An eagle soared above him, and he realized he'd be crow-food soon if he didn't get out of here.

He wriggled onto his side and squirmed towards a cave entrance.

Smokepaw barely had made it into the cave before the eagle swooped down at him. Talons bit deep into his skin, and he cried out and felt blood gush from the wound. The eagle soared up again, its shadow blotting out the sun, and Smokepaw prepared for the impact.

It never came, and Smokepaw looked up in relief to see the eagle soaring away.

 _I'm alive! Thank you, StarClan!_

He twisted his head to see his gray fur matted and soaked with blood. He began to lick the blood away. _I wish I had a cobweb or something to stop the bleeding, but I don't even know where I am! I could already be in StarClan for all I know._

Smokepaw curled in an exhausted ball and fell asleep.

 _"Smokepaw..."_

 _"Huh? What?"_

 _"Smokepaw. You're alive."_

 _Smokepaw opened his eyes to see a forested landscape. "Am I dead? Is this StarClan?"_

 _"No, you aren't dead, young warrior." The voice came from behind him, and Smokepaw turned to see a gray cat with darker flecks of gray all over his pelt._

 _"Who are you?"_

 _"My name is Rainfur. I'm a warrior of the lost Clan of SkyClan."_

 _"SkyClan!" blurted Smokepaw. "But there were only ever four Clans!"_

 _"No," Rainfur shook his head. "Once there were five, but SkyClan was driven out when the Twolegs expanded the Twolegplace on the side of the forest and choked their territory in Twoleg nests."_

 _"So an entire other Clan lived here too?" Smokepaw tried to picture the entire Twolegplace he'd once seen in ThunderClan's territory missing, and couldn't._

 _"Yes. It is your destiny to find them."_

 _"But what about the four Clans? ShadowClan is my home!"_

 _"You are dead to them." Rainfur meowed quietly. "It is their destiny to never see you again."_

 _Smokepaw sighed and bent his head. "But why?"_

 _Rainfur opened his mouth to answer when a wave of pain crashed over Smokepaw and his world was smothered in black._

"Hey, you there! Yeah, you. Wake up!"

Smokepaw heard voices.

"Is he dead?"

"No, I don't think so..." A paw prodded Smokepaw's side. "He looks close, though. Wake up!"

Smokepaw opened his eyes to see a stockily built gray tom looking down at him. Besides him were a brown she-cat and another gray tabby tom.

"Uhh... Where am I?"

The she-cat gasped. "Crag, look at his leg!"

The gray tom turned to look at the she-cat. "I'm not blind, Brook. I think it's broken."

The gray tabby spoke up. "We should take him back to Stoneteller. He'll know what to do about this!"

The gray tom looked at him. "Perhaps you're right, Stormfur. Can you walk on that leg?"

Smokepaw tried to talk but coughed on the rocky dust. He shook his head.

"I don't think he can." Stormfur meowed. "We should probably carry him. No cat should be left alone on the mountains."

Crag picked Smokepaw up in his teeth and led the other two cats through the mountains. Smokepaw saw rock rushing by and closed his eyes.

 **A/N: So Smokepaw's been rescued by the Tribe of Rushing Water! Yay!**

 **Please remember to review and post ideas for some more stories. Once I'm done Smokepaw's story I'm planning on publishing a trollfic I wrote a few years back about SkyClan's daylight-warriors.**

 **I want at least 3 reviews from different people before I post another chapter. Reviews please!**


	2. Chapter 2: Stoneteller

**A/N: I know I should've posted the responses to reviews last chapter. SORRY!**

 **Braveheart: It's probably not true, but you know how it is when you just get an idea for a story and it just WON'T LET GO?**

 **Titanclaw: Thanks for the review. I read some of your fanfictions for Warriors and they're AWESOME, especially the Walking Dead Warrior Cats one. Ice is pretty awesome with his pistol.**

 **Pebble Shining In A Stream: SORRY!**

 **Gustpetal: Thanks for the advice!**

 **BTW everyone, Smokepaw and Smokefoot are different characters! It just says Smokefoot because I couldn't find Smokepaw anywhere.**

Smokepaw came to in a dark cavern. "Where am I?" he asked groggily.

A tabby face appeared above him. "Ah, you're awake at last."

Memories crashed over Smokepaw, and he remembered everything. "Where am I?"

"You're in the Cave of Pointed Stones. I am Stoneteller, the Tribe of Rushing Water's healer." the tom meowed.

Smokepaw struggled into a sitting position and realized there was something over his leg. When he looked closer, he saw a few sticks and some kind of wound plants around his leg. "Where are the Clans? Your Clan... um, I mean, tribe, probably found them."

Stoneteller looked calmly at him. "They left some time ago."

"What?" yowled Smokepaw. He pushed himself up. "I have to go find them! They can't leave without me! They can't!"

"They did." Stoneteller replied, and Smokepaw remembered what Rainfur had told him. _"You are dead to them. It is your destiny to never see them again."_

"Anyway, you can't go after them." continued Stoneteller. "Your leg will take time to heal. You'll stay with us until then."

Too tired to argue, Smokepaw sank back down.

For every moment he wasted sitting here, the Clans would move farther away from the desolate mountains and the odds of him ever finding the Clans again decreased.

 _I don't believe you, Rainfur._ thought Smokepaw. _I_ will _see my family again._

 **A/N: Reviewssssss! (I got tired of waiting for reviews and I had already written this chapter, so I just posted it.)**


	3. Chapter 3: Smokefrost

**A/N: Decided that two reviews was enough for another one, here comes! If you want me to detail my daylight-warriors trollfic in the next author's note next chapter, please say so!**

 **Fire: I saw your post and I was pretty shocked that the public education system could be this corrupt. I reposted to my profile, needless to say!**

 **Guest: Maybe I should get rid of that chain-letter post...**

 **And one more thing... drags Scourge in by his tail**

 **Scourge: What do you think you're doing? I'm Scourge, leader of BloodClan!**

 **Me: I know perfectly well who you are, now say it or I'll pull your tail off!**

 **Scourge: Fine! VolcanicPizza does not own Warrior Cats.**

 **Me: There, was that so hard?**

A moon went by. Smokepaw's broken bone began to heal, but Stoneteller insisted that he keep the sticks on the leg. The prey-hunters barely brought in any food for him, and most of the time because Stoneteller told them in a sharp tone that they had to or _they'd_ be the next patient he had with broken bones. As a cat raised on the warrior code in ShadowClan, Smokepaw knew why it was so hard for them to give him any prey at all. He wouldn't have wanted to give prey to an injured cat in the Tribe if they'd unceremoniously just dumped themselves into ShadowClan territory.

Smokepaw didn't make any friends in the Tribe of Rushing Water, partially because Stoneteller only let him go for a walk every other dawn around the cave the Tribe camped in and partially because he didn't have any contact with any other cats besides the prey-hunters and Stoneteller.

On the night that a full moon had passed, Smokepaw found himself staring at the pool onto which the moon reflected and wondering idly whether his mother Nightwing was looking up at the same moon now, straining to see him in StarClan.

"But I'm not dead!" he wailed aloud, and the wail echoed around the Cave of Pointed Stones.

"i know how it is too." came a voice from behind him.

Startled, Smokepaw whirled around to see the gray tom named Stormfur. "Oh, it's you." He had only seen Stormfur twice, once at a Gathering and when he'd been rescued outside on the mountains. Had it really only been a moon ago? It felt like seasons.

"I lost my littermate, Feathertail, in these mountains to the giant cat Sharptooth." Stormfur told him. "And then, when I left behind my Clan to live with the Tribe of Rushing Water, I felt my heart tearing again as they left the mountains forever."

Smokepaw could imagine how it had been for Stormfur, but that was only because of his own loss. Nightwing, Blackstar, Talonpaw, all the other familiar faces and names from ShadowClan he'd been forced to leave just because he fell off of a ravine. _StarClan, why were you cruel to me to leave me, abandon me here in these desolate mountains?_

"You won't see your Clan again, Smokepaw." Stormfur meowed, echoing what Rainfur had told him in his dream. "You have to make yourself a new life."

 _A new life..._ Smokepaw felt a faint stirring of hope. "You mean I won't be stuck with the Tribe forever?"

Stormfur shook his head. "Not unless you want to be."

Smokepaw smiled and lay back down on the stone floor in his bedding of lichen and heather. Shortly Stormfur left the cavern, and his footsteps echoed, starting a rhythm in Smokepaw's head.

Smokepaw fell asleep with a contented smile on his face. _At least I have one friend here._

The next day, Stoneteller pronounced Smokepaw's leg healed and broke away the sticks carefully. Smokepaw stretched the leg and felt it respond, instead of the harsh grating of bone against bone.

Smokepaw walked into the main cave of the Tribe's camp and saw a chaotic morass. Everything swirled around him, the scents and cats and movement. After a moon confined in the Cave of Pointed Stones, this was... this was so unfamiliar it made his head reel.

A few apprentice-sized cats, what Stoneteller had told him were called _to-bes_ , jumped up to Smokepaw and surrounded him. "I'm Cloud that Drifts at Dusk." one of the to-bes, a small gray she-cat said. "What's your name? Stoneteller's kept you hidden away so long for your leg to heal we haven't had a chance to talk to you!"

Smokepaw began to respond and stopped.

 _Stormfur said to make yourself a new life._ Smokepaw remembered. _If that means a new name, so be it. I_ am _past the age that Blackstar would have given me a warrior name, and I don't need him for a new name._

"Smokefrost." he meowed confidently. "My name is Smokefrost."

 **A/N: Yay for Smokefrost! (I've always wanted to use that name.)**

 **Smokefrost's journey isn't over, though. Far from it! He's going to meet a wide variety of characters, and if anyone has any OC ideas, please submit them. I need some rogues and kittypets mostly, but if you have other ideas, I'm ready to hear them, as long as you follow the rubric below. Some of the rogues (not all necessarily friendly!) will be named Mick, Charlie, Triffid, and Firey. I do have a vague idea of who they are, but if you have any ideas for them, go ahead and submit for them! Everyone who submits an OC gets digital cookies like this one! [::]**

 **Name:**

 **Approximate age:**

 **What they are (i.e. rogue, loner, kittypet, exiled Clan warrior, etc.)**

 **Description (physical):**

 **Description (character):**

 **Backstory (not too tragic, we can't have a boatload of tragic backstories or the whole thing will turn into a tragedyfic):**

 **Anything else I didn't list:**

 **Finally, if you actually did read the A/N and not just pass it over, here is a free digital cookie! [::] You don't get it if you were bad and skipped to the end. ;)**


	4. Chapter 4: Exodus

**A/N: Here we go again! (starts singing some derpy song)**

 **Okay, where was I?**

 **Presentpaw's Moon of Fun: Thanks for the submission! I will definitely use that! Here's your cookie: (::)**

 **(BTW everyone there will be TWO MORE CHAPTERS AFTER THIS ONE ONLY to post your ideas for OC's. Unless they are a Mary-Sue, Gary-Stu, or totally unrealistic (i.e. Smokeweed: exiled Dark Forest warrior, was kicked out of it and back into the living world for smoking too much weed, green tabby tom with weed for a tail and rainbow-colored eyes), I will use them at some point.)**

 **(No, I never considered naming Smokepaw Smokeweed. This is not a trollfic! Although, if any readers are writing a trollfic, feel free to name any of your characters Smokeweed, I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of that.)**

 **Anyway...**

 **Goldenwing is Loki'd: Yeah, I should definitely take down the chain letter post and combine the first two chapters.**

 **Remember, I will try to respond to ALL REVIEWS!**

 **Okay, let's go.**

 **Chapter Five.**

 **In we go.**

Smokefrost wasn't exactly accepted as a member of the Tribe. Everyone knew he'd be leaving as soon as possible, but at least they were a little friendlier. Stormfur was, of course, always willing to share fresh-kill with him, and Brook was also nice to him. Cloud that Drifts at Dusk, one of the first to-bes he'd met, was a little jumpy and wild, but she was okay, too, and she had quickly become his friend.

Despite what they said, Smokefrost felt like a prisoner here. Every time he asked to leave, Stoneteller came up with a reason he couldn't: not enough prey, too much snow, one of the kits was sick and he wanted an extra paw to help him treating her. Rainfur had appeared in a dream to him once, reprimanding him gently and telling him he needed to seek out SkyClan.

It was an entire half-moon later that Smokefrost first saw his chance to escape and quickly ran over to the pile of prey, and grinning, nosed each piece of prey, ensuring to make it look like he was just looking through them. Eventually he picked up a mouse and sat over in the corner of the cave with Cloud. He was sharing prey with her when he noticed the cave-guard at the entrance lean against the wall in a tired way. Trying to be inconspicuous, Smokefrost finished his prey and fell into his nest, noticing the cats around him do the same. Pretending to sleep, he noticed Cloud pad over and settle down next to him. Smokefrost waited patiently until the guard finally toppled on his side and lay there, snoring.

Smokefrost smiled. Earlier he'd talked to Stoneteller and asked him carefully about each of the herbs until Stoneteller had finally told him about a herb that worked the same way poppy seed did: it made cats fall asleep. When he'd been nosing the prey, he'd carefully stuffed a piece of the herb inside each piece of fresh-kill except his own. _Now is my chance to sneak away! I know perfectly well what Stoneteller is trying to do: he wants to turn me into a Tribe cat. That's not who I am and it never will be._

Smokefrost gently nudged his way away from Cloud, and he felt a small pang of sadness. She had been a good friend. _Maybe I'll come back someday and visit,_ he thought, although he didn't expect to see the mountains ever again.

Smokefrost made his way past Stormfur and Brook, curled up next to each other. _They were good friends too,_ he thought and felt a worm of doubt. _Maybe I should stay..._

 _NO! I'm not a Tribe cat! I'm a Clan cat, and I have to believe that or I'll never summon the heart to leave._

Smokefrost padded confidently out of the cave and looked out at the gray sky, mottled with blue and purple. _I can't believe I'm leaving at last. It's so... easy._

The yawning sky stretched above him as he ventured out further into the mountains. _I need to find SkyClan like Rainfur told me. They're my only hope of ever finding my Clan again._

A yawning ravine stretched ahead, and Smokefrost padded forwards calmly. _They won't find me again!_ He leaped over it and landed soundly on the other side. Flexing his leg, he marveled at its new agility and realized that he was almost to the edge of the mountains. Ahead of him stretched a proper forest and beyond it, a Twolegplace, its lights flickering on against the beginning dusk.

Smokefrost continued on until the first stars of Silverpelt began to shimmer above him, and exhausted, he curled in a ball with his tail over his nose. _I should be far away enough that they'll never find me. Cloud will be sad, but she'll understand why I had to leave. She might come running after me, but Stormfur will stop her. He'd know why, and if I'd told anyone that I was leaving it would have been him._

Smokefrost sensed a presence nearby as he turned his body atop the bedding of heather and moss he'd clawed together. His eyes snapped open and he scanned the darkness. There were a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness, staring at him...

Smokefrost cursed himself. _Frog-brain!_ He'd been so well adapted to life with the Tribe, he'd completely forgotten about the fact that there might be hostile rogues or worse, foxes or badgers abroad. _Maybe I should have stayed with the Tribe..._

 _But, no. I may be out of practice from a moon and a half of sedentary lifestyle, but I can still fight, and I will if I have to!_ Smokefrost arched his back and prepared to fight as the animal moved closer... and then stopped in surprise as he realized what it really was.

"Cloud, is that you?"

 **A/N: Ah, plot twists! Don't you just love them!**

 **By the way, I've completely changed what my original plans were for Smokepaw's Quest. If anyone spots any continuity errors, don't be afraid to point them out.**

 **Two more chapters to submit OCs!**


	5. Chapter 5: Comprehension

**A/N: Here goes...**

 **WillowPraysForParis: Yep, I'm glad I removed that.**

 **SleepyGhosty: You'll have to wait and see... I will definitely use Russet and Grey. Here are your cookies! [::] (::)**

 **Presentpaw's Moon of Fun: That's sort of what I had in mind...**

 **PizaSmokesWeed: Ummm... Well, weird comment, but I might use your description for Triffid.**

 **One more chapter to submit OCs. If you already submitted one, YOU CAN SUBMIT MORE. Just because the deadline is Chapter Six for OCs doesn't mean I won't ask for more later.**

"Cloud, why did you follow me?" repeated Smokefrost, sighing and sitting down. "You scared my fur off! Couldn't you have said hello?"

"Well, I did want to scare your fur off." admitted Cloud, her tail curling with amusement. "But I also followed you because the mountains are boring, Stoneteller is boring, and everything is boring! I noticed you slipping some herbs inside the fresh-kill and knew you were up to something, so I decided to follow you."

Smokefrost sighed. "I can't very well make you go back, can I?"

"No, you can't." Cloud responded instantly. "If you do, I'll just tell everyone where you went. You did know Stoneteller was trying to turn you into a Tribe cat, right? He wants extra paws in the Tribe, and he told me as much. After he saw how me and the other to-bes wanted to be your friends, he told us to be your friends so you wouldn't want to leave us behind. I really did want to be your friend, though," she added after seeing the look Smokefrost had on his face.

"I suspected as much." Smokefrost remembered, when he was leaving the cavern, how he hadn't wanted to leave behind Cloud. He was going to tell her this, but instead told her, "I'm glad you came."

Cloud didn't seem to hear him, instead scratching together her own bedding next to his. She curled up in a ball and was asleep almost instantly.

Smokefrost curled next to her but didn't fall asleep, instead gazing off into the depth of the forest, and above, the twinkling lights of StarClan; or were they the Tribe's ancestors? He wondered where SkyClan was, and who they were.

Idly he remembered the cats who'd been selected by StarClan to bring the Clans to a new home; Squirrelpaw, Brambleclaw, Crowpaw, Stormfur, Feathertail, and Tawnypelt of his own Clan. She'd told him about a badger named Midnight who spoke to StarClan and had told them of the ensuing disaster.

 _That's it!_ though Smokefrost suddenly in a rush as his brain made the connection. _Midnight can tell us where SkyClan is. Then I can go there at last and figure out why Rainfur wanted me to go there!_

Content with his new knowledge, Smokefrost fell asleep with the light of StarClan in his mind.

 **A/N: Hmm, Cloud reminds me of someone. I wonder who? (cough) Squirrelflight (cough)**

 **As I said, before, you have until whenever I submit the next chapter to submit OCs.**


	6. Chapter 6: Midnight Search

**A/N: And time's up in... (looks at stopwatch) Well, it is up.**

 **I haven't been active for a while, I know.**

 **Yoloswagyaz: I sent instructions to your profile. If you didn't get that, tell me and I'll try again.**

 **There will be more opportunities to submit OCs.**

When he woke the next morning, Smokefrost's realization was still fresh in his mind. Cloud was still sleeping, her light gray fur neatly blending with the forest floor. Smokefrost figured he could leave her there for a bit, at least until he'd caught something.

Leaving Cloud behind as the first rays of dawn pierced the leaves, Smokefrost quickly caught a thrush and brought it back, where Cloud was stirring. Smokefrost dropped the thrush in front of her. "You were sleeping, so I went hunting." he meowed.

"Thanks." Cloud blinked gratefully and tore a bite from the bird, then passed it to him. Remembering the Tribe custom of sharing prey he'd become so accustomed to, Smokefrost took a bite and passed it back. They shared the prey, eating as quickly as they could as the sun rose.

"Let's get out of here as quickly as possible." Smokefrost looked warily around, sniffing the air and already feeling comfortable. Although it wasn't ShadowClan land, the pine forest felt like home, almost. He could tell that Cloud, on the other hand, was overwhelmed by the scents. "We don't want any of the rogues in the area to think we're trespassing on their territory."

"Uh, I guess." Cloud responded at last. Smokefrost remembered that Cloud had never been out of the Tribe's territory, just like he'd never been out of ShadowClan except to go to Gatherings, and so she probably had no concept of rogues.

"Anyway, let's get out of here." Smokefrost let Cloud finish the last of the prey and they quickly set off.

"So, where are we going?" asked Cloud.

"Well, I spoke to a cat from StarClan- that's the Clans' Tribe of Endless Hunting- named Rainfur." Smokefrost quickly related what Rainfur had told him and how he'd figured that Midnight would know where to go.

"Sounds fun!" Cloud bounced up and down enthusiastically. "So where do we go?"

"We need to follow the setting sun." responded Smokefrost. "Tawnypelt said that was the direction the sun-drown-place was in."

"Great, let's go!" Cloud raced off through the forest.

"Cloud, wait!" Smokefrost yowled after her.

Cloud turned. "What?" she asked. "Is-"

"You're going the wrong direction." Smokefrost sighed. "The sun sets that way."

"Oh. I- I knew that!" Cloud meowed. "Yeah, I was just testing you!"

Smokefrost sighed and followed her as she turned and raced off again.

They left the forest soon after and skirted the edge of the Twolegplace. The sun was setting when they finally got around the filthy place.

"Those Twoleg monsters smell so bad up close!" moaned Cloud as they stopped at the foot of an oak tree. "We saw Twolegs sometimes in the mountains, and sometimes their monsters skirted the edges of the mountains, but we never got right next to them!" She stopped complaining for a moment to sniff the air. "What's that smell? It's salt, isn't it?"

"I think that's the sun-drown-place." Smokefrost replied happily. "I-" He broke off with a startled yowl as a dark gray shape detached itself from the branches of the oak tree and launched itself at him.

 **A/N: Cliff-hanger, cliff-hanger, cliff-hanger! Don't you just love cliff-hangers?! Don't you just love cliff-hangerrrrrrrrrrrrs, la la, la la? La la la la la, la la la, la la la.**

 **(Thank you, thank you. That's an original performance of the 'Cliffhanger Song'. It's sung to the tune of the 'Imperial March' in Star Wars V.)**

 **Yep, here's another opportunity RIGHT HERE to submit OCs. It's a little contest!**

 **Essentially, I've seen a lot of people using their A/Ns to run contests like the following one with various rewards. So, I'm doing it too!**

 **Just guess which of the following I've actually said in real life. The first person to guess it right WINS! (I'll PM that person and they'll get an opportunity to submit either an OC or a plot twist, either of which I'll probably use.)**

 **A. Hey, nice marble sh*t.**

 **B. You have failed the popular kids for the last time... so join us nerds!**

 **C. Well, there's five other people in the library. I guess it's time to flop around and start screaming. (starts screaming)**

 **D. (walks up to random guy on the street fiddling with his phone) Excuse me, are you going to eat that?**

 **Just say A, B, C, or D, and if you feel like it, add why you think it's the answer. Points will not be taken off if you get that last bit wrong.**


	7. Chapter 7: Midnight Found

**A/N: I've changed my name to VolcanicPizza of PhoenixClan just because I can. I don't know if there is actually anybody with a forum-Clan called PhoenixClan, but I might make one!**

 **Disclaimer: Once you have submitted OCs, they are out of your hands. I will make them do what I want and you can't complain.**

 **Only one person responded to the quiz, so, one more chapter! Here's the answers again:**

 **A. Hey, nice marble sh*t.**

 **B. You have failed the popular kids for the last time... so join us nerds!**

 **C. Well, there's five other people in the library. I guess it's time to flop around and start screaming. (starts screaming)**

 **D. (walks up to random guy on the street fiddling with his phone) Excuse me, are you going to eat that?**

 **Just say A, B, C, or D. That's it.**

 **In case you didn't get the earlier memo (drags Tigerstar in by stuffing a crowbar up his nostrils)**

 **Tigerstar: Aahh! Ow! VolcanicPizza does not own Warriors!**

 **Me: Make sure to submit what Dark Forest cat you want to see me do this to next!**

 **Also, don't forget to do the poll on my page about this fanfiction!**

Smokefrost yowled and twisted to the side as the gray form dropped from the tree. It got up again, hissing, and Smokefrost realized it was a cat. It arched its back and hissed, "Get out of our territory!"

"This is why I wanted to get out of here!" Smokefrost yowled as he and Cloud ran.

"Well, duh!" responded Cloud.

They continued running until the cat stopped chasing them. He arched his back, spitting, but Smokefrost didn't respond.

After a short duration of time, the vast, watery expanse of the sun-drown-place loomed before them.

"Wow!" Cloud gazed out at the water. "That's the sun-drown-place?"

"Yes, it is." Smokefrost looked out across the vast expanses of water, lapping and churning, and couldn't help suppress a spasm of nausea. "I guess we have to go down there and look for Midnight..."

"Needed, that will not be." rumbled a voice from behind him in a strange accent.

Smokefrost turned slowly to see a badger looming behind them. "A-a-are you Midnight?" he managed to stammer.

The badger dipped her head. "That I am. Come with me."

Cloud looked anxiously at Smokefrost. "Can we trust her?"

"We have to." Smokefrost took a deep breath and followed her.

 **A/N: Sorry if it's brief, FanFiction crapped out on me and deleted the chapter I wrote when I tried to post it and I had to rewrite it. Remember to do everything I told you to at the beginning, good-bye! (does some crazy dance and knocks over table lamp)**


	8. Chapter 8: Lost

**A/N: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand... the winner was Gustpetal! (rings derpy little bell which falls off the wall and smashes) Oops... anyway, here's the stories behind each of them:**

 **A. (Hey, nice marble sh*t.) This was the real one. In science class a few years back, the teacher was talking about metamorphic rocks or something and was listing some rock names. She listed 'gneiss, marble, and schist,' and my screwed-up brain interpreted this as 'nice marble sh*t.' Anyway, I was picturing this guy shooting marbles out of his butt like a Gatling gun and whispered to my friend David, who was sitting next to me, "Hey, nice marble sh*t" and we both got detention for laughing our heads off.**

 **B. (You have failed the popular kids for the last time... so join us nerds!) My little brother was watching a TV show that was a parody of Star Wars and it went, "You have failed the Empire for the last time... (ominous pause) So join us, the rebels!" Then it started doing a conga line with Ewoks and Jar Jar Binks. Over the Ewoks screaming 'Yub nub!' h** **e turned to me and said, "Hey, I could try that at school. 'You have failed the popular kids for the last time... so join us nerds!"**

 **C. (Well, there's five other people in the library. I guess it's time to flop around and start screaming. (starts screaming) According to my friend David's older sister, he went to the library in kindergarten, got separated from the group, and supposedly said, "Well, there's five other people in the library. I suppose it's time to flop around and start screaming." Then he did. And then he got found. And then he got his library card revoked and gave the librarians the finger. David swears his older sister made it all up.**

 **D. (walks up to random guy on the street fiddling with his phone) Excuse me, are you going to eat that?) This is the most recent one. My family was touring Barcelona, Catalonia (I refuse to acknowledge it as a Spanish place) and we saw a guy in the lobby of our hotel fiddling with his phone. So naturally, my little brother walked up to him and said, "Excuse me, are you going to eat that?" He's still using that line, and asdfmovie 9 came out four months ago.**

 **Titanclaw should get some recognition too, for being the first to answer and the only other person to answer.**

 **Anyway, back to the story! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! At last!**

Smokefrost awoke as the sun rose. For a moment, he wondered how the sun drowned in the salty waters and then reappeared on the other side of the horizon. Perhaps the sun-drown-place extended under the world, and the sun swam through that?

Hearing shifting behind him, he turned to see Cloud waking up. "You're awake?"

Cloud nodded and turned to face the dawn rays of the sun.

Midnight walked up behind them. "Wish to know where SkyClan is now, you do, or wait to later? Perhaps catch prey first"

"Now." responded Smokefrost. "I'm so jittery, I don't think I could catch anything. In fact, if a rabbit hurled himself into my paws and requested for me to eat him, I-"

"That's enough, mouse-brain." murmured Cloud, swishing her tail over his mouth. She turned to Midnight and asked, "So where is SkyClan?"

Using her giant claws, the badger scratched a rough line along the sandy floor. She drew squiggly lines along the left side. "This side, the ocean- no, call it the sun-drown-place, you do- is." she rumbled, pointing to the squiggly side. She drew the cliff walls turning in sharply. "Here, the cliffs turn towards land." Midnight continued. "This extends inland until a gorge is made. Here, SkyClan's camp is."

"Great, let's go!" Cloud jumped up and began to race out of the cave, only to stop as Midnight gently placed a heavy paw atop her tail. "Not now, Tribe cat. Eat first."

Cloud rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She raced out onto the clifftop, and Smokefrost ran after her.

They caught a bird, which they quickly shared. Smokefrost was so accustomed to sharing prey by now that it was instinct to him.

They made their way back to the cliffside, where Midnight was waiting. "So, ready to go are you?"

"Yes. I think so." Smokefrost responded.

"Then go. See each other again, we will not."

As they left, Smokefrost felt a pang of regret. Perhaps if they'd stayed a little longer, he could have gotten to know the she-badger better. He turned to say good-bye, but Midnight was already gone.

Time seemed to pass quickly as they moved down the cliff side. The waters of the sun-drown-place lapped in continual waves against the cliffs as the sun rose and began to sink.

As the two cats made their way further down the cliff, Smokefrost noted in alarm that the cliff was becoming less stable. "Cloud, the cliff-" He never finished his sentence as the cliff fell away around him and he plunged into the roaring waters. Yowling in alarm, he choked for breath as the water closed over him. Flailing wildly, one of Smokefrost's paws caught on a piece of silty beach and he clung desperately to it. He clambered out onto the beach, and coughing and choking, collapsed onto the sand. Gentle waves lapped at his body as the day turned black.

It seemed like an eternity that he lay there with the salt water lapping at his side. Gradually as his limbs regained strength he pushed himself upright.

Cloud was nowhere to be seen.

"Cloud!" he yowled, and instantly collapsed into a fit of choking as salt water was vomited from his stomach. Ignoring the taste of bile, he rose his head and yowled, "Cloud!" again.

He wanted more than anything to see the short shape of the gray she-cat running up the beach towards him, or springing gracefully from the waves.

But she was nowhere to be seen.

Smokefrost struggled forwards as he heard a meow. His heart leaped as he raced around the corner only to sink again as he saw the cliffs opening to a vast gorge, where a single bird perched on a stick. It made a plaintive meowing noise, and in fury Smokefrost swiped at it. The bird hopped into the air and flew away, meowing again.

 _Cloud's gone..._

Smokefrost searched the shores and up into the gorge, yowling for Cloud. She was nowhere to be found. _She's dead,_ he wanted to think, but stopped himself.

"I give up." Smokefrost whispered. He collapsed forwards onto his chest into the sands of the gorge. The cliff walls stretched into the sky as buzzards wheeled overhead.

"Take me, StarClan," he whispered.

 **A/N: Nooo! Don't go into the light, Smokefrost!**

 **I was going to say, "Don't worry, he isn't dead," but, mehehehehehehehehehehehe... Okay, just kidding. He won't die...**

 **for now...**

 **Okay, not really, I just put that in to see if anyone would yell, "You despicable creep, VolcanicPizza! How dare you kill off Smokefrost! He's your main character! I refuse to read anymore of your fanfictions!" and throw their computer across the room. (A hint: Don't. My brother did and he had to buy a new one. It was his computer, not mine, but still!)**

 **You'll just have to come back next time to see if he _is_ dead...**


	9. Chapter 9: A New Hope

**A/N: Sorry, I was off for a while because of Christmas and stuff. You probably understand.**

 **WyldClaw: Well, thank you for just putting 'nooooooooooooooooooooooooo.' When my little brother saw what I'd written last chapter, he cussed me out so much I though my ears would bleed.**

 **Just a note, ALL of my fanfictions will be on hiatus for a while except for Smokepaw's Quest and Sharp Claw because I want to finish these two. If you want me to continue any of my other fanfictions, let me know.**

 **(Don't worry, Smokefrost's not dead. A little tip, I never end my stories after eight chapters.)**

Smokefrost felt searing heat lance down on him and cracked an eye open to see orange stone. His first thought was, _I didn't know it would be so desolate in StarClan._

 _Wait, what?_

The agony of the last day suddenly crashed back down on him. "No! Cloud!" he yowled to the sky, and he fully felt her death hit him.

 _I never realized how much she meant to me..._

Smokefrost hadn't realized before how much he had cared for Cloud, but those days were past. She was dead, and he had to accept it.

"Great StarClan, who do I think I am?" whispered Smokefrost softly into the heat. "I'll never forget her."

It was because of her, thought Smokefrost as he struggled upright, that he had to continue on.

 _She'll have died for nothing if I give up now._ he thought with new determination, and he got to his paws. _I have to continue. For her, if for no other reason._

After spending some time struggling his way out of the gorge, Smokefrost realized he was completely lost.

"I wish I'd been selected to go to the sun-drown-place." he meowed aloud. "I'd at least know where I am..."

"Are you lost?" asked a voice from next to him.

Smokefrost twisted in shock and arched his back. A white tom with long fur and bright blue eyes stood there. He let his fur lie flat as he realized the cat was wearing a collar. Oakfur had always told him kittypets were inferior, but if he asked this one politely enough, maybe he'd find out something.

"My name's Smokefrost." Smokefrost told the kittypet. "I'm looking for-"

"I'm Rubik!" responded the white kittypet. "You've got a weird name. Who are your housefolk?"

Smokefrost realized the kittypet must be talking about Twolegs and responded, "Twolegs don't take care of me. I'm a wild cat."

"Are you sure?" asked Rubik. "You're awfully polite for a wild cat. I thought they ate kittypets live and slept on bones."

"I'm sure I don't eat kittypets." Smokefrost responded dryly. "They're too dry. I prefer mice and frogs."

Rubik chuckled at the joke. "Well, each to his own, I suppose." Rubik responded airily, flicking Smokefrost's ear with a gray tail tip. "Are you looking for the SkyClan cats?"

Smokefrost nodded. "Yes!"

"I know where they are. My friend Billy lives with them." Rubik responded immediately. "Billy asked me if I wanted to join them, but I told him I didn't want to. Billy still comes back to his housefolk each night, though," continued the white tom, "and I can introduce you to him!"

"It's a start. Thanks, Rubik." Smokefrost was too tired to ask Rubik why Billy came back to his housefolk. "Do you think you can take me to where they are right now?"

Rubik looked disappointed. "Don't you want to meet my housefolk?" he asked. "They're nice. They'll feed you and they won't pull your tail like Billy's housefolk do."

"Maybe some other time, Rubik." Smokefrost responded. "I've been searching for SkyClan for..." Mentally Smokefrost counted in his mind. Had it really been so long? He had to strain to remember his Clanmates, and only his mentor Oakfur, Blackstar, and his mother Nightwing were fresh in his mind. Even they were fading. "I don't even remember how long I've been trying to find them." He didn't tell Rubik about StarClan, he had probably confused the kittypet enough already.

Smokefrost felt a twinge of envy. Rubik didn't need to worry about catching his prey, finding a place to sleep each night, and obeying the call of his warrior ancestors. The only thing Rubik had to do with his life was please his Twolegs.

Yet Smokefrost would never give up the feral life he had. If he'd been a kittypet, he'd still be in the Twolegplace by the ruins of the forest. He'd never have met Cloud, and he'd see the stars as twinkly points of light, not the spirits of his ancestors.

The thought of Cloud jolted him back to reality, and he wondered if she'd found peace among her ancestors in the Tribe of Rushing Water. _I hope they've accepted her as one of their own, even though she died so far away from her home._

Rubik was still watching Smokefrost, and he snapped fully out of his head. "Okay, Rubik." he meowed with as much courage as he could muster. "Take me to SkyClan."

 **A/N: Attack of the first OCs!**

 **I couldn't help feeling kind of guilty writing this chapter, by the way. _I'm not an inhuman robot!_**

 **Also, remember to vote in the poll on my page about Smokefrost's fate! For those of you ENRAGED by Cloud's fate, I've added an option for "F*** you, you a*shole! Y U NO KEEP CLOUD ALIVE!"**


	10. Chapter 10: Encounter

**A/N: I've been off for a while, I know, but that's mainly because I've been working on... other things. (grins evilly) Also, I will be taking down the poll on your thoughts about Smokepaw's Quest from my page in a few days, so make sure to get your vote in, because it matters.**

 **Another thing; I've been looking and it seems that some reviews aren't going through. I looked at the displayed numbers on some of my fanfictions and then counted the number of reviews and unless I miscounted, some of them are missing. Help?**

 **That's about it, I think...**

Smokefrost followed Rubik warily through the Twolegplace. Although the white tom seemed perfectly at ease with the ins and outs of the Twolegplace, Smokefrost didn't trust it.

A monster roared by, spraying Smokefrost with cold water. Shivering, he shook it from his pelt. Rubik hadn't been hit by the wave and was glaring forwards at a fence.

"What don't you like about that fence?" asked Smokefrost.

"Oscar lives there." responded Rubik, keeping his gaze fixed on the fence. "He's a nasty cat. We don't want to tangle with him."

"Oh?" came a voice from behind them. Rubik and Smokefrost whipped around to see a black tom stalking from the shadows, his eyes gleaming with the malevolent light of a monster's glittering eyes.

"Oscar." spat Rubik.

"You can't come through here." Oscar meowed, languidly swishing his tail behind him.

"You don't want to tangle with me." Smokefrost narrowed his eyes.

"I think it's you who shouldn't tangle with me." responded the black tom. "But if you insist, I'll take care of you." With a leap, Oscar jumped towards Smokefrost. Snarling, he met him in midair and brought his claws towards his face.

Oscar knocked him off and crouched, tail twitching; clearly he hadn't expected a fight. With a snarl, he landed on Smokefrost's shoulders, and Smokefrost quickly rolled over, crushing the tom under his back. As Smokefrost flipped over and turned to bring his paw down on Oscar's face, he felt his blood speeding through his veins with a renewed strength he hadn't known for moons.

 _This is what I live for._ he thought with fierce joy. _I am a warrior. I always have been, even if I don't live with a Clan anymore._

Smokefrost raced at Oscar and brought his claws down on his face. Oscar snarled and jumped on Smokefrost, biting his ear cruelly, yanking back and forth as blood dripped from his nose onto Smokefrost's face and mixed with the blood from his mangled ear.

 _I won't be able to win this._ thought Smokefrost desperately. "Rubik!" he shouted, but the tom was nowhere to be seen.

"Feel it now?" hissed Oscar into the mangled remains of Smokefrost's ear.

Suddenly, a crushing weight landed on Oscar. The black tom wiggled out and spun to face Smokefrost's rescuer.

It was a tall, heavily built ginger-and-white tom. At first Smokefrost assumed he must be a warrior of SkyClan, but then noticed the collar around his neck and realized he must be a kittypet that knew how to fight. _Oakfur said that kittypet's aren't all weak,_ recalled Smokefrost in his dazed haze, _and he showed me a scar he got from fighting one of them._

Oscar was no feeble kittypet, but the ginger-and-white tom's attacks were too much and he crumbled beneath the tom's attacks. Shrieking, he fled as another kittypet, this one black as night and with moss tucked around her collar, joined the fight.

Smokefrost pushed himself upright to see Rubik's face. "Did I do good?" asked the white tom eagerly. "I brought Billy and his friend Eb-" He cut off as he saw Smokefrost's mangled ear. "Ergh... that needs treating."

"Yes, it does." The black she-cat looked approvingly at Rubik. "You've done well, Rubik. We'll take him to SkyClan so Echosong can treat him. You can go home."

"Well.. alright." Rubik cast a doubtful glance at the kittypet-warriors. "Can you bring Smokefrost over to see me when his ear's better."

"I'll be alright..." Smokefrost pulled himself upright and blinked through the curtain of blood over his eye. "I don't need you to waste your herbs on me..."

"Don't try to wiggle out of it." warned the black she-cat. "You're coming back with us, and we will treat you."

Too tired to argue, Smokefrost allowed the tom to support him on his right side, avoiding the blood pouring from his tortured left ear. "Okay, let's go..." He felt himself slip from the tom's shoulder as blackness took him into its comforting depths.

 **A/N: Well, he's found SkyClan at least...**

 **Remember, the poll on my page will close in a few days!**


	11. Chapter 11: Found

**A/N: Well, here goes again...**

 **WyldClaw: Thanks for your support.**

 **Shadowman: I've got a little surprise planned... (laughs) I think that everyone will like it.**

Smokefrost blinked awake to realize he was still plodding along between the cats. Unsure of how he had kept walking while asleep, he thought, _Maybe it was StarClan?_

 _Well, at least I've found SkyClan at last. Maybe Rainfur will tell me why I've been brought here..._

A brown-and-cream tabby she-cat walked towards them. "Billystorm, Ebonyclaw, what's happened?" she asked.

"We found this cat in Twolegplace. Rubik- he's one of my kittypet friends- told me that there was a cat nearby looking for SkyClan and Oscar was clawing him badly." Billystorm responded evenly. "I got Ebonyclaw, and we came over. He was holding his own, but I think that ear needs seeing to."

"We should take him to Echosong." the she-cat meowed. "I wish Frecklewish would choose to stay all the time, but we can't force her." The she-cat gave a long, tired sigh, and for a moment, Smokefrost saw her as much older and weary.

Smokefrost's consciousness gave way, and it seemed as if he floated upon invisible paws to the medicine den. Frenzied yowling was heard all around him, and he saw flashes of fur... ginger, white, light gray, and then a pair of blue eyes seemed to stare into his soul.

He drifted.

 _Cloud disappeared beneath the waves yowling 'Smokefrost'... Nightwing's panicked look as he fell into the abyss, her cry ringing in his ears... first meeting Cloud, the curious look on her face as she asked what his name was..._

 _And then things changed._

 _Cloud's face flashed in his vision... two cats, one ginger and the other gray, walking along the edge of a Thunderpath, barely flinching as monsters zoomed by... a ginger spotted she-cat pleading for help as dogs chased her... and then a black tom stared at Smokefrost in his mind, one burning red eye and one bright blue one glaring into his soul._

 _Smokefrost and the black tom were in a darkened forest._

 _"I know who you are." the black tom said, his red eye burning wildly. "I see and know you, Smokefrost of no Clan." He chuckled. "We are almost one and the same..." The blue eye gazed at Smokefrost serenely in direct contrast to the fire burning in the other socket, like the waves of the sun-drown-place, gently lapping instead of raging, blue in the midday._

 _"We will meet soon." the tom continued. "Not yet, but soon. We will meet soon." He peered deeper into Smokefrost, who was paralyzed with fear. "I see... once of ShadowClan? Spent time with the Tribe of Rushing Water... yes, yes, I know them. SkyClan..."_

 _"Who are you?" choked out Smokefrost._

 _"That is for another time." The tom curled his tail over his paws, the red tip glimmering as if bathed in blood. "There is a twisted path ahead, Smokefrost, one of great gains should you pick the right one, one of loss the other way... Not even I can see that far ahead."_

 _"Stop speaking in riddles!" raged Smokefrost, but the tom was fading away to nothing. The last thing of him remaining was a fiery red orb which vanished quickly after blinking once. An irate yowling sounded in the background._

 _Blackness enveloped and smothered Smokefrost..._

The blackness was still intense as Smokefrost slowly came to, the yowling still consistent, but it was a different tone.

"Let me through!" yowled the voice, and a gray she-cat burst through the entrance to the den Smokefrost lay in. "Smokefrost! Smokefrost, is that you?"

"Cloud?" croaked Smokefrost.

 **A/N: I was planning that all along. Sorry if anybody got depressed because you thought I killed Cloud off.**

 **More OCs are coming in slowly and steadily... and r** **emember, your OCs are out of your hands! I will do what I want with them!**


	12. Chapter 12: SkyClan

**A/N: I'm back!**

 **Katie: Thanks for the OC. I think I'll remove the OC time limit now.**

 **Shadowman: Glad I cheered you up.**

"Smokefrost, I thought you were dead!" Cloud yowled.

Ignoring the pain, Smokefrost purred weakly and stood up on his shaky legs. "I thought you were dead too."

"I looked everywhere for you." Cloud's gaze met Smokefrost's. "I didn't want to leave you behind."

"I never meant to leave you..." Smokefrost began, but Cloud gently placed her tail over his mouth. "I know."

All Smokefrost knew was joy, the ominous implications of his dream forgotten in his happiness at meeting Cloud again.

"I've been here ever since we got separated." Cloud meowed. "I wandered up the gorge because I thought maybe you'd survived or been washed up." Her voice cracked. "I just didn't want to accept that you were dead..."

Smokefrost was silent for a moment, and Cloud took advantage of this silence to continue speaking. "Well, we've found SkyClan. I think... maybe this is where we're meant to be."

"Maybe." Smokefrost looked out through the entrance to the medicine den to where the Clan was. SkyClan cats shared tongues, ate their prey, and trained their apprentices... so much like a normal Clan, except that some of the warriors, like Billystorm and Ebonyclaw, still wore their collars. Perhaps it was sentimental attachment to their former Twolegs? But that couldn't be right, Rubik had said that Billystorm came back to his Twolegs every night. Maybe SkyClan needed more warriors, and worked out a compromise with kittypets unwilling to leave their Twolegs so that they would be warriors by day, and kittypets by night?

"The thing is, though..." Smokefrost continued. "I'd be happy to live anywhere, as long as you're by my side." For a moment he thought he'd said something wrong, but then Cloud turned back to him. "I feel the same way." she responded.

Nothing more remained to be said.

Cloud left after a while, and Smokefrost was left with his thoughts for a while. He began to remember the ominous dream of the cat. What exactly would happen now? Smokefrost had no doubt that he would meet this cat at some time in his life, but when and how? The memory of the floating red orb still gave him chills.

When he felt better, Smokefrost walked out of the medicine den. The pain and poultices over his ear nearly made him lie down again, but hunger forced his legs to walk to the fresh-kill pile. Unlike in the Tribe, the SkyClan cats welcomed him. A gray-and-white tom pushed a mouse towards him with his paw. "There's plenty for all." he invited. "My name's Waspwhisker, by the way."

"I'm Fallowdern," said a light brown tabby she-cat who was finishing off a songbird. Smokefrost could see right away from the way she looked at Waspwhisker that the two were mates. _I wonder Cloud would ever look at me like that, or has without my knowledge?_

More cats introduced themselves to Smokefrost, who was a little overwhelmed by the attention. Not only that, but a ringing pain was developing in his ear. Billystorm had just finished explaining the concept of daylight-warriors to him when Smokefrost finally decided he'd had enough. "I'm sorry, but I need some rest." Obediently, the cats parted and Smokefrost sank back into the soft nest in the medicine den.

He dreamed, and soon Rainfur came to him.

"Rainfur!" Smokefrost sprung up. "I've found SkyClan, like you told me to!"

Rainfur did not immediately respond, but instead looked out past Smokefrost as if seeing the trail that had brought him here. "Not so different from ShadowClan, is it?" asked Rainfur.

"Not really," responded Smokefrost, confused, "but they have daylight-warriors, and I'm sure there are other differences. I've only been here a day, I haven't seen much of the Clan."

"You have seen the different ways cats live together." Rainfur continued. Smokefrost, confused, wondered where he was going with this. "You have seen ShadowClan, the Tribe of Rushing Water, SkyClan, and the Twolegplace cats live together. Differently, yet the same."

Rainfur finally looked into Smokefrost's eyes, and Smokefrost saw pain and suffering in Rainfur's eyes. "What you must do, now that you know this, is-"

Everything vanished as a paw prodded Smokefrost's side. Almost snarling in frustration, he looked up to see Cloud. "Leafstar's got something to ask us." she meowed.

Groggy, Smokefrost scrambled upright. "What?"

"She didn't tell me." Cloud scrambled out of the den, and Smokefrost followed. He blinked at the bright light for a moment, but quickly adjusted and saw Leafstar standing there.

"Smokefrost, Cloud," she meowed, "would you like to join SkyClan?"

 **A/N: I'm just gonna leave it there because I'm cruel.**

 **Since next chapter Smokefrost and Cloud are gonna decide what to do, make sure to get your vote in by then!**


	13. Chapter 13: Decision Unfound

**A/N: Well, I felt like I had to put out the chapter. I'm still holding the fanfiction hostage until somebody... at least one more person... votes.**

 **Also, I don't know if I've said this already, but go to Google and type in 'smokepaw's quest.' This fanfiction is the first result! Yay!**

 **SylviaHunterofArtemis: I'm glad my pairing is appreciated. You'll find out soon enough what Rainfur was going to say...**

 **Shadowman: Thank you for being honest.**

 **Guest: You'll have to just wait and see.**

"I- I don't know what to say." stuttered Smokefrost. It was certainly kind of her to offer, but he'd been here less than a day! How could he make a decision? "Can you give us some time to think it over?"

Leafstar didn't look surprised. "I expected you would say that. You have the next quarter-moon to decide- Echosong said it shouldn't take it longer than that for your ear to heal."

Smokefrost knew his ear couldn't grow back and he'd be left with a stump of an ear for the rest of his life. "Thank you for being understanding."

"Come on!" Cloud suddenly meowed. "I want to show you some of the things around here!" She darted off, and Smokefrost followed. "See, they've got so many dens they don't even use half of them! And up there's the Skyrock. They gather there every full moon for Gatherings."

Smokefrost felt at ease by her side as she showed off the sites of the camp. _I could live here. Forever._ he thought. _Cloud would take a Clan name, like Cloudfeather or Cloudheart, and we'd be able to live here. Forever._

That night, Cloud slept with Smokefrost. Looking out at the glittering sky and the moon, he couldn't help but wonder what his life would've been if he'd never fallen off the ledge. He'd still be in ShadowClan, a loyal warrior... but he'd never have met Cloud.

 _I'm glad I fell._ he thought contentedly as he fell.

Sleep came immediately, and then he was facing Rainfur.

"What were you trying to say last time?" Smokefrost asked.

Rainfur didn't look at Smokefrost but rather through him. "You have a choice. You've seen how cats live in different places. You can join any of these groups, or you can create your own based on all you've seen."

"I can go back to ShadowClan?" Smokefrost yowled.

"If you so desire, yes. But do you think they'd accept Cloud?" Rainfur asked, and Smokefrost jolted awake. As rain began to fall from the sky, he ran from his den out into the middle of the camp. A few leaps and bounds later, he stood atop the Skyrock.

"I don't know what to do!" Smokefrost raged at the sky. "Who are you to use me as a plaything and dictate what I do? I never had a choice, did I? My destiny was all written out, and I could never have changed it! I don't want to make this choice!"

The stars glittered coldly as clouds moved to cover them, and Smokefrost had never felt so alone in his life.

"I don't know." he whimpered, collapsing atop the hard stone. "Someone help me. I can't make this choice!"


	14. Chapter 14: A Decision

**A/N: At last count, the poll was...**

 **Cloud and Smokefrost make their own Clan: 44%**

 **Smokefrost and Cloud join SkyClan: 33%**

 **Cloud dies and Smokefrost joins SkyClan: 11%**

 **Cloud and Smokefrost become mates and roam around as rogues: 11%**

 **I guess I'll keep the poll open for ONE MORE CHAPTER! ONLY! So if you want to get a vote in and potentially change my mind about where the story goes, get your vote in!**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: Cloud was sleeping.**

 **Shadowman: Glad you understand how torn he is.**

Smokefrost was still undecided when he awoke the next morning, and although Cloud did seem to want to join SkyClan, she too was undecided on the issue. For now, he participated in patrols, but hadn't given Leafstar an answer.

Smokefrost had been assigned on a dawn patrol with Waspwhisker, Patchfoot, and Sharpclaw. They set out. It was all familiar for Sharpclaw, the ginger tom leading the patrol, but for Smokefrost the territory was completely unfamiliar. Granted, he'd passed terrain like this on his journey, but never lived in it.

At the far border, after Patchfoot had sprayed a mark, they saw a tortoiseshell she-cat confidently walking over the border.

"Intruder!" spat Sharpclaw, leaping over the border and pinning down the she-cat. "What are you doing here?"

"Please don't hurt me!" yelped the she-cat pitifully. "I came to ask for your help!" She turned imploring blue eyes on Smokefrost. "My name's Triffid, and I need to talk to your leader!"

"Fine." Sharpclaw snarled. "But you better not try any funny business."

"I won't, I promise." Triffid got nervously to her feet. "Mick, Fiery, Charlie!" she called into the woods. "You can come out now."

Three more cats walked out of the woods, two dark brown tabbies, one ginger.

"What trickery is this?" snapped Sharpclaw.

"No, they're here for help, too." Triffid explained. "These two are Mick and Charlie," she explained, flicking her tail at the tabbies, "and this is Fiery." she finished, pointing to the ginger tom.

"You gotta help us!" Charlie pleaded, his wide amber eyes looking haunted. "The rogues, they-" Triffid glared at him, and he shut up. "We need to speak to your leader. The fact is, we need your help."

"Remember what happened the last time rogues asking for help came here?" asked Waspwhisker, looking hard at Sharpclaw.

"I remember." Sharpclaw's eyes narrowed to slits. "We just won't let them out of our sight."

The four cats let themselves be escorted back to camp. As they headed into the camp, most of the SkyClan cats immediately glared at the four rogues, no doubt remembering what the rogues Waspwhisker had mentioned had done.

"Why are they so hostile?" Charlie whispered nervously in Triffid's ear.

"We've done nothing wrong." Triffid replied, her head high. "They can't prove we're here with malicious intent."

Cloud padded up next to Smokefrost. "Who are those rogues?" she asked.

Smokefrost shrugged. "They appeared on the border and asked for help."

Cloud didn't respond as she studied the rogues.

Leafstar gathered the Clan together under the Rockpile, and Triffid stepped forwards. "We're here for your help." she implored. "A group of rogues took over a Twolegplace not too far away from here, and they stole my kits to train them to fight for them."

Instantly the gathered cats erupted in angry yowling. "Remember what happened when Stick and his group came here?" rasped Tangle, one of the elders. "We can't trust them!"

"What if our warriors die?" Echosong asked. "This Twolegplace sounds far away. I don't think we can risk helping these cats."

More cats voiced their objections, and soon nothing could be heard for the yowling.

"Quiet!" yowled Leafstar over the noise, and the cats immediately stopped. "I'm sorry, but we can't help you." she continued, talking directly to Triffid. "It's simply too much of a risk for us."

Triffid visibly deflated. All hope vanished from Charlie and Mick's eyes, and Fiery sagged to the ground.

"All right!" yowled a voice, and Smokefrost didn't know who it was until he realized it was Cloud. She padded up next to the rogues. "Then I'll help them." she announced. "I'm one cat, but one cat can make a difference."

"Then I'm coming with you." Smokefrost meowed without hesitation, stepping up besides her. "Two cats may not be much, but we can recruit more as we go along."

Relief reappeared in all the rogue's eyes. "But what about your Clan?" asked Charlie.

"We're not part of SkyClan yet." Smokefrost told him. "And if we decide we want to come back, we always can."

Nobody said anything as Leafstar adjourned the meeting, but Smokefrost could tell from the glares that some of the cats were angry at him.

"Let's get going, then." Smokefrost looked around the camp as cats slunk away, eyeing him, Cloud, and the rogues with suspicion. "The quicker we go, the quicker we'll get there."


	15. Chapter 15: Rogue

**A/N: And the poll's going down. The count was:**

 **Smokefrost and Cloud join SkyClan: 36%**

 **Cloud and Smokefrost make their own Clan: 36%**

 **Cloud dies and Smokefrost joins SkyClan: 18%**

 **Cloud and Smokefrost become mates and roam around as rogues: 9%**

 **Yes, I noticed those add up to 99%. It's FanFiction's system to round the numbers.**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: You certainly are very passionate about this issue.**

 **Shadowman: (does Nick Cage face) You don't say?**

 **Anyway, enough blabbering. Back to the story!**

Triffid, Mick, Charlie, Fiery, Smokefrost, and Cloud headed out of the camp. They were watched closely as they filed out, but nobody bothered to send a patrol to ensure they crossed the border.

"That was a little insulting." Cloud whispered.

"Don't worry about it." Smokefrost responded.

"Okay," he continued, addressing the rogues, "let's see if we can recruit any cats from the Twolegplace."

It seemed they'd only just entered the Twolegplace when Rubik bounced happily up to Smokefrost. "Hi, Smokefrost! Have you come to see my housefolk? And who are your new friends?"

"These are Mick, Charlie, Triffid, and Fiery," Smokefrost replied, "I'm sorry, but we can't stay to long." He quickly related the story of how the rogues needed their help. "Do you want to come help us?"

"I can't." Rubik answered, almost regretfully, it seemed. "My Twolegs would miss me too much, and I can't leave them behind. But good luck!" Rubik climbed up the side of the fence and dropped back into his yard.

Smokefrost closed his eyes and took a breath. "Let's keep going."

They turned a corner as a monster raced around it, throwing up a spray of water. Smokefrost leaped back as the wave rushed towards them. It splashed on the tan rock bordering the Thunderpath, leaving a wet puddle.

"This isn't much better than our Twolegplace." whispered Charlie nervously. "The monsters are all alive here."

"The Twolegplace you live in... the monsters are all dead?" asked Smokefrost, puzzled. "I didn't know monsters could die."

"Well, our Twolegplace is completely flooded. We think the monsters just drowned." Fiery responded. "Some of our mothers and fathers were kittypets or loners before the Twolegplace flooded, and they told us about what happened..."

"Can you tell us?" Cloud asked.

"Well, okay..." Fiery sat down and curled his tail over his paws. "They say it was a long time ago, when there was a big storm. The Twolegs all fled their homes, but most of them left their kittypets behind. A wave rushed into the Twolegplace, swamping the Thunderpaths and flooding them completely. Now, it's a world of half water we live in. Most of the Twoleg buildings are flooded past the first floor, and we have to navigate among the roofs. A cat named Alpha rose to power, and he completely controls the Twolegplace with his ruthless bunch of alley cats. We have to avoid them and survive, but recently they started taking cats to train them as their vicious warriors. They mostly took kits- Triffid's among them."

"Why didn't anyone fight back?" asked Cloud.

"It's so everyone's afraid of them." Charlie responded. "They use fear to keep their hold on everyone. Some of his warriors are loyal, but most of them are just scared of life without his protection." The fear tactic had obviously worked on him; even away from the Twolegplace Fiery had described he still seemed nervous. "We fought back and failed because everyone was too scared to help us."

"All we need to do is break his hold on them, then," Cloud meowed thoughtfully. "Wouldn't they then revolt against him?"

"I doubt you'd be able to break the hold of fear unless you really humiliate him." Triffid told her. "Anyway, we need to find more cats to help us."

But they met with no luck as they continued through the Twolegplace. The kittypets either were too scared or didn't care, and the few rogues they found didn't care either.

"How are we going to overthrow Alpha like this?" Charlie moaned.

"You can defeat him." came a voice from the shadows.

"Who said that?" Smokefrost whipped around to see two glowing eyes in the darkness of the alley, one red, one blue.

The cat stepped from the shadows, the red eye burning as if on fire.

It was the cat from Smokefrost's dream.

 **A/N: I got the idea for the flooded city Fiery describes from Bramblestar's Storm when they go into the drowned Twolegplace.**

 **All OCs will be used at some point. Don't get mad just because yours isn't in it yet.**


	16. Chapter 16: Lair of the Beast

**A/N: Yay! We've passed a thousand views! (throws digital cookies at everyone)**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: Alpha isn't exactly Scourge reincarnated, nor is he Scourge's son, in case anyone was wondering (according to the Erins, Scourge was neutered). But he is a little like Scourge, as you'll see.**

 **WyldClaw: Maybe they will be able to, maybe they won't. (laughs evilly)**

Alpha ripped the wing viciously from the bird and pulled the feathers out, one by one. His nest was already soft with Twoleg items and moss, but feathers would be welcome.

Only he deserved luxury. Those others did not.

With a contemptuous sneer, the black-and-brown tom looked down from his perch atop the wooden edifice. It was a rectangular prism that was just suspended enough above the floor that when the water had rushed into the Twolegplace, the wooden suspension had been spared. The floors, covered in thick, blue, artificial moss, were submerged underneath a tail-length of water. Among them, metal, folded things popped out of the water like the floating corpses of cats.

Despite his fearsome reputation, Alpha had never killed another cat. He had cats to do it for him.

Alpha didn't actually like the scent of blood, either. That was why he had cats hunt for him.

In fact, he didn't much like other cats, too. That was why his den was isolated over here. That, and he liked seeing the other cats' pitiful attempts at swimming to come give him news.

Swimming was in Alpha's blood. His mother, Willowpool, a kittypet, had survived the initial flood with him in her belly, and his father, Talon, a rogue, had come to help her afterwards when she was trapped. Willowpool hadn't actually been a kittypet all her life. She'd come from a faraway place she said was called RiverClan, but she was kidnapped by Twolegs while she was sunning herself atop a rock, who took her with them when they came home.

But then the flood came, and they'd left her. Soon after giving birth, Willowpool died, and Talon had raised Alpha to live in a flooded world.

"You need a fearsome name to survive." Talon had told young, unnamed Alpha when he was barely a moon old. "Cats will be more willing to share their food with a cat named Ripjaw than a cat named Softy. Correct?"

"Yes." Alpha had told his father.

"Furthermore, you must look fearsome. Would you give food to a kit if it demanded some?" asked Talon. "No, you wouldn't," he answered for his son, "because it is too small to do anything to you if you refuse. Now, if you confronted a cat three times your size with a giant scar down his face, you'd give him food. Yes?"

"Yes." the kit responded eagerly.

"The dogs in their wild packs, as do the wolves in theirs, call their leader 'Alpha.'" Talon let out his claws and almost gently, dug a long wound down the young kit's face. "So you will be Alpha, named in blood."

Alpha felt only pain as the blood from the wound his father had cut in him flowed in a waterfall down his face to the ground.

"With a fearsome scar and a fearsome name, you will be their Alpha." Talon continued.

Still shocked that his father had wounded him, Alpha stared at his reflection in the growing pool of blood.

Talon died eventually after drinking some bad water, and Alpha was on his own. So, he rose through the ranks of the cats fighting among the brackish water of the submerged Thunderpaths. Because he could swim and none of the other cats could, he was almost a deity to them. He became a legend, and cats flocked to him. He grew in power, and what had once been a decent young cat was corrupted into what he was now.

Alpha did not mind the corruption.

Outside, rain slashed through the sky. Alpha was glad of that- it would collect on the unbroken roofs and his guards would monopolize control over them, yet another way to keep his power over the cats of the drowned Twolegplace.

The hole in the roof of the Twoleg nest he slept in bent and creaked as rainwater sliced through it, dripping into the pool of water. Two metal things clanked against each other as they resettled in the waters.

"Alpha!"

Alpha immediately recognized the voice of Blood, one of his most trusted advisers. "What is it, Blood?"

The small tom stepped forwards, his pelt shining with the color of the liquid he was named for. "We've scheduled another few fights to keep the order."

Alpha narrowed his eyes. Although he didn't enjoy the blood resulting from these spectacles, he did like seeing cats kill each other simply because he told them to. "Now?"

Blood nodded. "Yes, over by the Twoleg nest with no roof."

Alpha considered smiling, then decided against it. The rain would wash away the blood, at least. "Let's go."

At the Twoleg nest, Alpha was pleased to see that cats had already gathered in the raised platforms around the central arena. Already some water had collected in it.

Alpha walked confidently up to his seat, raised high above the others in case of higher floods, and sat down upon it. "Release the first prisoners."

Two cats moved at opposite sides of the arena, shoving a small she-cat into the center.

"Who's that?" Alpha asked.

"She's just arrived here. She's a she-cat who claims to be called 'Wolfpaw.' I'll be fighting her." Blood grinned and let his claws out.

The reddish she-cat didn't seem perturbed by the fact that she would be fighting for her life. Her light brown muzzle twisted in a slight smile. A black stripe stretched from her forehead to the tip of her tail. She didn't seem like a fighting type at all.

 _Soon,_ thought Alpha, _her whole body will be drenched in red. Blood will make sure of it._

Blood pranced down to the arena, confident of victory. As he neared the she-cat, Alpha realized they were about the same size. Yet he didn't have any reason to mistrust Blood. He'd seen Blood take on cats three times his size and win.

"You're hardly my size!" scoffed Wolfpaw to Blood. "This'll be easy!"

"And... FIGHT!" yowled Alpha.

Blood leaped atop Wolfpaw's body, but with the speed of a kestrel she flipped on her back and crushed him beneath her, barely pausing to shake him off as she flipped back up. "Not so cocky now, eh?" she taunted.

Blood yowled in fury and sliced at Wolfpaw's front leg, leaving a long gash. He attacked her neck, but Wolfpaw dodged around it and sliced at his neck. Blood poured from the wound.

A little more wary as he realized that Wolfpaw wouldn't be so easy to defeat, Blood circled the she-cat. Blood continued to bubble from the wound.

Before he had time to leap, Wolfpaw fastened her jaws around his neck and brought him to the ground. She stood atop his body with her paw against his throat.

Yet she didn't kill Blood.

Alpha sighed. He hated to see Blood go, but admittedly he hadn't lasted much longer than most of his other advisers. "Finish it." he called.

Yet Wolfpaw didn't move.

"Finish it!" howled Alpha.

Wolfpaw continued to stare at Blood as he laid on the ground, life oozing out of him.

 _She's lost her nerve._ Alpha decided, and walked down into the center of the arena. With a quick swipe, he sliced through Blood's throat. _This is the first time I've ever killed,_ he realized, and felt sick pleasure. "You are the clear victor." he told Wolfpaw.

Wolfpaw continued to stare at the dead tom as if she'd only just realized she'd defeated him.

"Put her back with the others." Alpha yowled, and guards moved in immediately to take her away. "I will be interested to see her later performance." Alpha muttered to himself.

With precise claw movements, Alpha sliced open Blood's chest, blocking out the stench of blood. It was a ceremony he underwent for every one of his dead advisers.

Alpha plunged his head into Blood's chest and began to feast on his heart. Blood flowed in rivulets from the body, to be washed away by the falling rain.

 **A/N: I bet nobody was expecting that!**

 **In case you're wondering, Alpha's den was in the flooded auditorium of a school, and the arena was the former gymnasium of the school. If you have any other questions about how Alpha has things set up, review with your question and I'll respond the best I can without ruining the story.**


	17. Chapter 17: Talon

**A/N: If anyone puked last chapter from Alpha eating Blood's heart, sorry. If anyone thought that was a little weird for a cat who hates the smell of blood, Alpha wouldn't have done it period if it weren't for the expectations that the cats have for him to do it and because he does it to keep them in check.**

 **PizaSmokesWeed: No, he isn't. Didn't you read a single word of what I told SylviaHunterOfArtemis last chapter? (troll face)**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: Your reaction to my ending was pretty much what I wanted... (laughs evilly) As for if Alpha's mother had taught him to live properly, keep in mind she died a few days after he was born, and Talon had to basically ask a bunch of random she-cats to nurse him for a while. If she'd survived, I doubt Talon would have got his paws so thoroughly on Alpha, and Willowpool would've tried to go back to RiverClan and raised him there.**

 **SleepyGhosty: I was aiming for unexpected last chapter. P:**

 **And finally...**

 **nothing. I just wanted to make you look down here.**

 **Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

"It's you." whispered Smokefrost. "You're the cat I saw in my dream."

"The tendrils of dreams can intersect in many ways." the black cat replied. "Yours merely happened to intersect mine one night, and I saw... everything."

"I think he might be a little mad." Cloud whispered.

"Maybe, but... I trust him." Smokefrost replied. And it was true. He did trust this strange cat, even though the only time they'd met before was in his dream. And yet he had a feeling they'd met before.

The stranger looked keenly at Smokefrost. "I watched you as you entered the area around SkyClan. It wasn't your destiny to stay with them."

"Do you know what we're doing?" asked Smokefrost.

"Yes." the stranger replied. "You go to overthrow a tyrant in the remains of the drowned Twolegplace. Yet remember, things are not always as they seem, and you may have an unknown ally."

"Who is this? Do you know him?" Triffid asked, instantly taking command.

"I know him, and yet I don't." Smokefrost replied clearly.

Mick rolled his eyes. "Great waters, now we've got _two_ of you talking in riddles!"

"Great waters?" Cloud asked, curious.

"It's an expression we use."

"That isn't the point." Fiery snarled. "Should we chase him off?"

"That won't be necessary." the black tom replied in an even voice. "I can help you."

"Okay." Smokefrost decided. "We should let him come with."

"Who died and made you leader?" demanded Triffid.

"Hey, we don't need to argue!" interrupted Charlie nervously; he seemed absolutely terrified at the prospect of trying to separate two arguing cats. "We all have the same goal here!"

"Charlie's right." Cloud agreed. "We shouldn't be fighting among ourselves."

"Alright." Smokefrost mumbled.

"There's just one thing we need." Cloud continued, and everyone turned to look at her. "If we're going to bring you with-" she swung to face the stranger- "we'll need to know your name."

The black tom was silent for a while. "I once lived in the drowned Twolegplace. I also knew the tyrant you go to overthrow. His name is Alpha."

"How do you know this?" demanded Mick. Smokefrost waited for a response, but when it came, it took him by surprise.

"My name is Talon. I'm Alpha's father, and I'm the reason Alpha is who he is."

 **A/N: Dun dun dun! I bet nobody expected that!**

 **Remember, your OCs are OUT OF YOUR HANDS! YOU CAN'T YELL AT ME FOR USING THEM DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU ORIGINALLY WANTED THEM TO BE USED!**

 **Sorry about the all caps, but it was necessary to make everyone whose OCs I've already used not forget it in the time from now until the time they click on the review box.**


	18. Chapter 18: Rise

**A/N: For those of you needing help with your Warriors fanfictions, I have a new story called 'The Warriors Fanfiction Advice Guide.' Just ask there, and I'll answer the best I can.**

 **Shadowman: Yes. I said that already.**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: You didn't do anything, per se, I was just informing PizaSmokesWeed that I'd already told you that Alpha wasn't related to Scourge and PizaSmokesWeed had said something along those lines.**

 **Rebel: Thanks for the encouragement.**

 **And now, onwards! And stuff like that! Yay!**

"You're Alpha's father?" repeated Triffid.

"Oh, how I wish I'd treated him better than I did." Talon heaved a long sigh. "I thought treating him tough was the best way to help him survive in a harsh environment, but I was wrong."

"But why aren't you still in the drowned Twolegplace?" asked Cloud.

"I drank some filthy water and became sick. Alpha left me for dead, but I survived. In my fever, the ancestors of all cats spoke to me, and I realized I'd been wrong about everything. I left the floods behind me and traveled north to see what was there. I watched from the shadows as the ThunderClan leader Firestar resurrected SkyClan and saw it grow and flourish. I stayed in the Twolegplace and found an ancient wall, built long before the Twolegplace was built. Thinking it was related to my ancient ancestors, I spoke to it, hoping that my ancestors would reveal something to me, but nothing... until now."

"So you'll help us?" asked Smokefrost.

"Oh, yes." Talon grimaced. "Oh, yes..."

(************)

A paw prodded Alpha's side, and with a snarl he woke. Ouranos, head of his guard, was standing with two other guards, Clyde and Wheeler.

"What is it?" Alpha snapped.

"Something happened." Ouranos meowed.

"Well, obviously." Alpha's sarcasm bit through the informal mood. "What, precisely, happened?"

"Well, we were with a few hunters out in the far north of the Twolegplace." Ouranos began.

"But there are no cats there!" hissed Alpha. "That's outside our territory."

"We thought we could find some more food there." Clyde spoke up nervously.

"Shut it!" snapped Wheeler. "Ouranos is telling the story."

"So anyway," Ouranos continued, "we were picking up a lot of prey, navigating the flood-"

"Something good or something bad obviously happened, because otherwise you wouldn't have woken me." Alpha snarled in a low, even tone. "So tell me what it is before I decide to put you in the arena next!"

"Well," Ouranos continued nervously, "we were heading back towards the main base when this utterly huge animal jumped on us- like a golden brown cat, but ten times the size! It took all our prey and killed the hunters, and-"

"And what?" Alpha stood. "What utter nonsense. You merely went into a district of the Twolegplace with no food, the hunters drowned, and you concocted this wild tale of a cat-monster attacking you? If you're going to make excuses for your utter lack of competence, at least make sure they're believable!"

"But it's all true!" insisted Wheeler.

"Get out before I decide to add your pelts to my bedding!" Alpha yowled, and the three cats fled, sloshing helplessly through the water. Clyde collided with a metal thing in his hasty flight from the room and whimpered in pain.

"Honestly," scoffed Alpha to himself as he curled back up on his nest. "Giant cats? What rot."

Later that day, Alpha lined up the new recruits for his group: all kits, none over five moons. _You have to begin to train them early._ his father had taught him.

"You must be utterly loyal to me." Alpha snarled as he stalked through the ranks. "I will demand nothing less than your willingness to lay down your very lives for the existence of this collection of cats living in the drowned Twolegplace. If a rogue group attacks us, you will die defending your comrades. If a building collapses, you will die defending the group. Why, if a giant beast attacks us, you will die defending the group!"

"LOYALTY!" he yowled harshly, and the cats jumped. "Loyalty is what you need!"

"But can't we be loyal to our friends, too?" asked a voice, and Alpha turned to see a kit looking at him with bright, innocent eyes.

"What's your name?" Alpha asked.

"Fox." the kit responded.

"How old are you?" asked Alpha gently.

"Two moons!" Fox mewed in an innocent little voice.

"You're old enough to know better!" Alpha snapped. "Your loyalty is to the group, not to your friends!" He turned to where Ouranos was standing. "Take him to the arena with the other fighting cats!" he growled. "We'll put him in the ring tomorrow, and you," he swung around to face the other kits, "will watch!"

As Fox was dragged away, Alpha stormed up on top of his platform. "Let this be a lesson to you!" His gaze swung over the kits assembled below. "If any of you ask questions contradicting me, you'll join your friend Fox! Today's lesson is over!" He swung around again and stomped off to his den. The kits, frozen in horror at the prospect that Alpha had just condemned a two-month-old-kit to die, didn't move until he was out of sight.

 **A/N: Sorry about the asterisks and things, but it was the only way I could separate those without FanFiction automatically deleting it.**


	19. Chapter 19: Completed Circle

**A/N: I took an admittedly very brief hiatus from Smokepaw's Quest, but I'm back! Yippee skip.**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: My sentiments exactly.**

 **I'd also like to start showcasing other stories I think are good and don't really get enough attention. The first one is:**

 **Fallen to Rise:** **by Kyndal1515. It's a story about Smokepaw surviving his fall, like in this one, but it's quite different. It's actually a great fic, and it really doesn't get enough attention.**

 **If you have other suggestions for showcase stories, just review with them.**

"I know just who will help us against Alpha." Talon meowed. "It will be a small force, but if Alpha hasn't changed since he was a kit, his followers will desert him if he is made to seem weak."

"That's what we were thinking." Smokefrost glanced warily around; now that he knew who Talon was, he almost expected Talon's 'friends' to materialize from the walls.

"Well, let's go." Talon briskly turned. "We want to overthrow Alpha as soon as possible. One day could make the difference."

Talon led them through the Twolegplace confidently. He stopped in front of an alleyway, peered down it, and meowed, "She's here." He tapped lightly with his claw on a piece of corrugated metal resting over the entrance to the alleyway.

"What the..." A small, golden spotted she-cat peered out. "Who're you?"

Smokefrost nudged Talon and whispered to him, "Don't go into all that 'I know you, I've been stalking you' stuff. Let us handle it."

"That was what I planned." Talon meowed evenly.

"I'm Smokefrost, and these are Talon, Cloud, Mick, Charlie, Triffid, and Fiery." Smokefrost told the she-cat. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kiara." responded the young she-cat. "Why are you all here? Are you going to kill me?"

"I doubt it." joked Mick, but Smokefrost shoved him when he realized Kiara was taking him seriously. "We aren't going to hurt you, but we'd like your help. Triffid, why don't you tell her?"

Triffid quickly related the story of Alpha and what he'd done, and once she'd finished, Kiara nodded slowly. "I don't like to fight, but I see what you mean. No cat should be allowed to get away with that kind of tyranny."

"So you'll help?" asked Smokefrost, feeling a wave of relief; if she was that easy to convince, maybe everyone else Talon had in mind would be.

"Yes, but..." Kiara shook herself. "Okay. I've got nothing to lose."

"Thank you." Smokefrost turned to Talon. "What next?"

"There are others, I've seen in dreams." Talon whispered intensely. "We will travel to find them, and since they're on our way to the drowned Twolegplace, it should be relatively simple."

"Let's go."

At sunset, the cats had traveled a good distance away from the Twolegplace, though its glittering lights could still be seen in the distance far away.

"Where are we going to spend the night?" asked Charlie. As with just about everything, he seemed absolutely terrified at the prospect of being left out in the night without a place to shelter.

"I'm not sure." Smokefrost sniffed the air and felt the ground squelch beneath his paws. It was like the forests around SkyClan, but with the same marshy ground as ShadowClan's old territory had had. Somehow it felt comforting.

Glancing over at Cloud, he saw she shared his feelings. "Look at these trees." she purred, stretching a paw towards the sky. "They're like the mountains. I could climb in them all day and never get tired."

"We could easily climb them and see if there's a place we can set up camp nearby." Triffid was already halfway up one of the trees, her tortoiseshell pelt shining in the sunset. Smokefrost climbed after her up the tree, with Cloud behind him.

For a moment Smokefrost was lost in an abyss of leaves and branches, yet he felt strangely comfortable. _I could live here..._ Then the leaves began to vanish until he could see clearly through the forest.

It stretched on and on in all directions, but ended sharply at a point about half as far away from him as the Twolegplace. As he squinted, he could make out the vague outlines of Twoleg nests with water lapping between them and wondered if that was the drowned Twolegplace.

"Look!" cried Triffid, pointing towards the setting sun. Smokefrost turned and could see clearly, not too far away, a sandy, shallow-sided ravine, sloping gently into the hill it was carved in the middle of.

"We can sleep there." purred Cloud, pouncing down between the branches. Smokefrost and Triffid followed her until they'd reached the bottom where Talon, Mick, Charlie, Fiery, and Kiara were waiting.

"Well?" demanded Fiery apprehensively.

"Not too far away is a shallow ravine, in the middle of a hill." purred Triffid. "It might not be perfect, but it's not too far away."

Smokefrost led them confidently towards the direction of the ravine. The dying sun stained his pelt blood-red.

Then, suddenly, the hill sloped upwards, a sandy edifice littered with gravel here and there. Smokefrost walked, more slowly, forwards until at last he could see into it.

The ravine went down about a fox-length and a half at a gentle slope, enough that they could get down without too much trouble, but steep enough that any fox or badger, weighing more than them, would have trouble getting down. On the other side of the ravine, the slope was much steeper, and hollows were carved into its lower edge, meeting with the sandy ground of the ravine. To the left of the hollows, a waterfall gently burbled down in front of it.

"I like this." Charlie was finally cured of his nerves as he looked around the peaceful ravine. "I really do."

"Let's just claw together some dens in the biggest cave and sleep there for tonight." Too tired to elaborate, Smokefrost headed forwards towards the hollow. He stopped first to take a sniff at the air in the cave and was greeted with a cat smell. _That's odd. The gorge seemed deserted-_

A gray cat jumped out of the cave and landed on top of Smokefrost. Startled by the attack, he fell over onto his back as the cat pinned him down. He looked backwards to see if the other cats would help him, but they were still. Talon was holding them back with a small smile and muttering something. Smokefrost strained to hear and heard:

"The circle is complete."

"Just what do you think you're doing?" demanded the gray tom.

 **A/N: I'll leave it there because I'm evil and stuff. XD**

 **I hope everyone enjoyed and didn't think everything was foreshadowing.**


	20. Chapter 20: Cell

**A/N: Sorry for leaving everyone with that cliffhanger at the end of last chapter...**

 **Actually, I'm not. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

 **Shadowman: Yes, it has.**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: I'm glad you find this so riveting.**

 **Guest: I will finish this. I never just stop my fanfictions, I see them through to the end. They might go on hiatus for a few months, but I'll see 'em through! And, coincidentally, I'm having tacos for dinner tonight.**

 **IslandGamer: Cliffhangers... I love them. They're such a great tool for generating suspense and making you come back. Muahahahahahaha...**

In the depths of the prisons, a kit whimpered. His ginger pelt was stained with the filthy waters that flooded the rooms surrounding the arena.

He never wanted to fight. He just wanted his mother.

Now, he was trapped in this tiny cell he could barely turn around in, but was more than six times as tall as him.

He hadn't meant to speak out against Alpha. It just came out...

His tiny body shook as he realized that he would probably die when his cell was opened.

All around him, he could hear the panicked breathing of cats.

Everywhere... it made him feel trapped.

With a smacking of flesh against wood, his cell door creaked open, and the kit saw three of Alpha's guard standing there.

"Move it, kit." snapped one of them. Trembling, the kit edged his way out onto the wood that surrounded the cells, and wobbled. With a shriek he almost fell into the water flooding the room, but one of the guards caught him. "We can't go losing slaughter material." he muttered.

The kit wasn't quite sure what _slaughter_ meant, but he knew it had something to do with killing.

Other groups of cats opened other cells, and the cats within were escorted out. They looked tired and bedraggled, given up on their chances for life. The kit was forced into line with them, and they were made to trudge along the wooden planks towards another, larger room.

"Have fun." meowed one of the guards, his lips twisting cruelly. "Your time is at sunhigh, when Alpha gets back from his patrol."

The kit looked out the window at the rising sun and shook with fear.

The guards left, and he shrank deeper into himself. When a paw tapped his shoulder, he almost jumped out of his fur with fright.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." the she-cat said. She was very dark ginger, and despite the fact that her pelt was pretty close in hue to blood, she looked relatively amiable. "My name's Wolfpaw."

"I'm Fox." the kit responded. "Are we all going to die?"

"I'm sure we won't." Wolfpaw responded. She looked at him more closely, and her eyes grew wide with shock. "How old are you?"

"Two moons." Fox responded.

"But... that's..." Wolfpaw looked like she was about to ask why he'd been essentially condemned to death, but thought better of it, knowing it must have been a traumatic experience for the kit. "Anyway, I'll try to protect you."

"You will?" Fox asked warily.

"Of course. Any decent cat would."

Fox glanced nervously out the window. The sun was rising, and too fast.

(*)

Alpha swam effortlessly through the flooded Thunderpath, his paws not even touching the ground. Behind him, his patrol of Ouranos, Clyde, and Wheeler splashed clumsily after him.

Those fools seemed so convinced that a monster was living in this section of the Twolegplace; well, it was time to prove them wrong. There was nothing to be scared of here.

He jumped over a collapsed hollow stump and that was when it happened. There was a horrific roar, and Alpha turned to see Clyde shrieking and hanging from the mouth of an enormous, golden-brown, cat-like beast. Hair sprouted in wild tangles around its head like the rays of the sun.

"Run!" yowled Ouranos, but Alpha waited until Wheeler and Ouranos had begun to flee before following them. That way they couldn't accuse him of cowardice.

Once they'd gotten back a fair distance towards the main base, Alpha turned to glare at Ouranos. Wisely, the gray tom didn't say "I told you so."

 **A/N: The 'prisons' is the locker room next to the gymnasium that's the arena, and the individual prisons are the lockers. Yes, the fighting cats are all stuffed in lockers, but with the vents clawed out a little wider. Alpha's cats 'lock' them by jamming pieces of wood or metal against them.**

 **And yes, that was a freakin' lion.**


	21. Chapter 21: For One Night

**A/N: Sorry for the long break. I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack, my pretties, baaaaaaack!**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: Yes, well, if you're expecting a pairing there, keep in mind that Wolfpaw is six moons older than Fox is.**

 **Shadowman: Yes, indeed.**

 **PizaSmokesWeed: ...That's kinda the point...**

"We're not going to hurt you." Smokefrost forced himself to stay calm. "Now, could you please get off of me?"

Grumbling, the gray tom complied. Smokefrost got up and turned around to see Talon's satisfied face. "These are the last ones." he meowed quietly.

"Them?" Smokefrost forced himself to stay calm. "This one jumped on my face!"

"And you wouldn't have if the situation had been reversed?" challenged Talon.

Smokefrost sighed as a ginger she-cat walked out of one of the caves. "Gray, what's going on?" she asked, eyes wide.

"We're being attacked!" snapped Gray. "That's what!"

"We're not going to hurt you." Smokefrost repeated. "We just need somewhere to stay before we move on to the drowned Twolegplace."

"You'd have to be insane to go there!" spat Gray, turning to the she-cat. "Tell them, Russet!"

"We're going to get the kits he's training out of there." Triffid explained, stepping forwards. "Mine among them."

Something flashed in Gray's eyes as he turned to Russet. "It's not just that- haven't you heard the stories?"

"We've been away for the past half-moon." Mick stepped forwards. "What is it?"

"Well, first off, Blood's dead." Russet told him.

"Blood?" Mick's eyes opened. "How'd he die? He might've been tiny, but he was fast and vicious! How'd that happen?"

"Well, he was defeated in the arena, but his opponent refused to kill him, so Alpha did himself." Gray let his guard drop a little. "And second, there's a beast living in the floods."

"What?" Charlie immediately became nervous again, shrinking into the ground. "Th-that's impossible!"

"Believe it." Gray turned to the tabby rogue. "The stories are running wild, but the general consensus is that it's a giant, golden, cat-like animal with ray of sunlight shooting from its head."

"Hmm..." Smokefrost remembered the story Runningnose had once told him. "That sounds like the ancient lions of long ago, but they should've died out a long time ago and had their bloodlines integrated into the Clans long ago, unless... unless some of them survived." If they had, then this was new. The elders in ShadowClan would've loved to know this story to tell the kits.

 _But I can't go back,_ Smokefrost thought as the now-familiar pang struck him. _Rainfur made that clear._

"Lion?" Fiery nodded. "I think my mother told me of stories of the lions. Twolegs put them in clear shells so they could stare at them."

"Why would Twolegs do that?" wondered Kiara.

"Who knows?" Cloud shrugged. "Twolegs are mouse-brained."

"At any rate, with the threat from the beast," Russet continued, "it'd be one of the stupidest things I can think of to go into the Twolegplace."

"But by then my kits could be dead!" protested Triffid.

"We'll let you stay overnight, but that's it." growled Gray with a tone in his voice making it clear that there would be no compromises. "Then you're leaving."

Smokefrost sighed. "Is this what you saw?" he asked Talon.

Talon was silent, then replied, "Yes. Their part will come later."

"Is there anything we can do to persuade them?" Smokefrost asked, but Talon didn't respond.

"Come on." Cloud brushed Smokefrost's cheek lightly with her tail. "We should get as much sleep as we can."

Smokefrost followed her to the largest den. Sleep didn't come easily, though, and when it came he dreamed of terror and death.

 **A/N: That'll be all for now! I guess...**

 **This was a little late, I know, but I sort of lost my motivation, considering the sad scene I have planned for OMITTED BECAUSE SPOILER ALERT.**


	22. Chapter 22: Attack

**A/N: I'm a lazy bum, I know. I can't help it, though, my teachers have been relentless with homework, ESPECIALLY since my algebra teacher thinks it's a good idea to assign a half-hour's worth of homework every night now. Anyway, I'm expecting to be wrapping up this fic in a few chapters, just so you know.**

 **Skysplash of WindClan: Thanks for your support. I sent instructions to your profile.**

 **Braveheart of ShadowClan: I did, and it looks good so far. Are you the same Braveheart guest-reviewer who reviewed when I first started this fic?**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: That's fine.**

 **Softkit: Thank you for your support.**

Smokefrost blinked his eyes open and looked around. For a second he forgot where he was, then remembered the gorge and everything that had happened.

He turned around and saw Gray standing there. "You gotta get out now." the surly gray tom growled.

Smokefrost sighed and nodded. "Very well." Around him the other cats were beginning to wake.

"You're sure you won't assist us?" Cloud asked Gray, but the tom obstinately shook his head. "I'd prefer to remain alive, thanks. Between Alpha's gang and this lion of Smokefrost's it's too much trouble for us."

"But what about all those held under Alpha?" Mick growled. "Don't you want the chance to overthrow his tyrannical rule once and for all?"

"Not particularly." Gray yawned in an insulting manner. "Alpha doesn't bother us out here, so we won't bother him. Simple as that."

"Fine." Smokefrost knew a lost cause when he saw one, and turned away from the gray tom.

"If you decide that your quest is insane enough to not be worth going on with," Russet meowed, "you can always come-"

"No, they can't." Gray silenced his sister with a growl. "Move out, you all!"

Instinctively Smokefrost turned to Talon to lead them out, but the slim black tom shook his head. "You are the leader of these cats, Smokefrost, and it is you who must take them to the drowned Twolegplace."

"But I'm not..." Smokefrost began, but Talon's glare silenced him. "You are now, Smokefrost. You have seen much on your journey, from a kit in ShadowClan to who you are now: a rogue who follows the warrior code with a self-given warrior name, who has lived in three differing groups of cats. One day your paths of the different lives you have led will intertwine, and change you from what you were."

Smokefrost sighed, knowing it was pointless to argue with Talon. "Very well. I will lead these cats."

So they set out for the drowned Twolegplace, a thin stream of cats heading forwards towards the lapping waters. For the four rogues and Talon, it was coming home. For Kiara, it was horrifying; a Twolegplace so much like the one she lived in completely drowned. For Cloud, it was a shock at how different it was from the mountains where she had been raised.

And for Smokefrost, it was just another changing environment he'd have to adapt to, like all the others.

Smokefrost stood at the crest of the hill before the floodwaters, wondering if it was worth it.

 _Yes,_ he decided. _I am the leader of these cats, like Talon said. And if I can't trust my own decisions, then who will?_

He turned towards the others, letting his gaze trail over each of them in turn. "Let's go," he meowed at last, and flicked his tail for the others to follow him.

At the edge of the hill, Smokefrost noticed an overhanging roof barely a tail-length away. He jumped and landed easily. "I suppose this is how you navigate?" he asked Triffid, who was leaping after him with the other cats.

"Most of the time," replied the tortoiseshell, scrabbling her paws on the roof. "The Thunderpaths are flooded, and so are the tan slabs the Twolegs walked around. Sometimes there's Twoleg stuff lying around we can jump on when we need to cross over a Thunderpath, but in general most of the roofs overhang enough."

"Triffid, I'll let you take the lead since you seem to know where to go." Smokefrost stepped back to let the tortoiseshell in front of him. She looked around and nodded. "This is close to where he has his center of operations, actually. It's this way." She jumped onto another roof, and Smokefrost followed, trying not to look down at the cold, gray waves.

As they neared an enormous building sitting in the center of the ruins, Triffid tilted her ear with a worried expression. "That's coming from the arena..." she meowed in a worried tone.

"Arena?" Smokefrost questioned.

"It's where Alpha puts anyone he doesn't like." Charlie spoke up, looking even more terrified. "He'll set cats to fight each other, or sometimes even dogs his gangs catch when they're out on patrol."

"Let's go!" Smokefrost tore ahead.

(*)

Fox whimpered in fear as a guard opened the door. "Arena time, kit." He shoved Fox violently into the half-flooded arena, making the kit gasp as cold water hit his undersides. "And you, too." he added, sending Wolfpaw after Fox.

"Don't worry." Wolfpaw whispered to Fox. "He's probably captured a dog or something if he's going to force both of us to fight it, but I know how to defeat dogs. You just sit back, okay?"

"And today we're going to have an even greater spectacle than before!" Alpha yowled across the arena. "Today, we'll have this vicious fighter Wolfpaw and this little kit Fox fighting... _each other!_ "

Fox felt his blood run cold, and glanced over at Wolfpaw to see if she knew a way out, but she seemed as paralyzed as he was.

"What are you waiting for?" snapped Alpha. "FIGHT, or I'll throw in a few of my guards to kill you both."

"Just what do you think you're doing?" demanded a voice. Fox, Wolfpaw, and every cat in the arena turned their heads to see a single gray cat standing atop the shattered roof.

"What did these two cats ever do to you?" snapped the tom.

"I might ask of you why you're here," Alpha replied silkily, "and what authority you have to barge in on the best performance we'll have in moons."

"My name's Smokefrost." the gray tom replied. "I've seen cruelty and kindness in all its different forms, and this is the worst kind of slaughter I have ever seen, even more so than the Twolegs. You kill for no reason other than that it amuses you."

"And what authority do you have," Alpha suddenly roared, "to barge in here and tell me to stop?"

"This authority." Smokefrost flicked his tail, and a group of cats poured up around him. Moving as a single entity, they surrounded Alpha.

Fox began to feel hopeful; maybe Smokefrost and these cats would kill Alpha and let him go.

"You won't be able to do it that easily." Alpha snorted, and flicked his tail. Guards suddenly seemed to appear, although Fox knew they were really just jumping out of all the doors around the arena.

"Dear me," Alpha sighed, back in control again. "You really didn't think this through, did you?"


	23. Chapter 23: Death

**A/N: I'm evil for leaving at a cliffhanger, I know, but that's how I get you guys to come back! XD I would have updated sooner, but I was reading an awesome alternate history book (I really love alternate history) called _Bring the Jubilee,_ so yeah... Don't hurt me! (hides under chair)**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: Yeah, uh oh. I think you'll find Smokefrost's response to this very interesting, although not out of character.**

 **Dusksoul: Hope you enjoy this chapter too!**

 **Skyshine: Like I said, cliffhangers are what makes you guys come back.**

 **PizaSmokesWeed: (turns into a turtle) I try not to use cliches in general unless they help to move the story along, and even then I usually don't.**

 **Also, can we make it to 100 reviews before the end of this fic? That's my challenge for all you reviewers out there.**

 **Enjoy this chapter!**

Smokefrost's breath quickened as he turned in a slow circle. _I can't see any way out of this,_ he thought frantically, panic overtaking him.

 _No!_ Smokefrost's claws curled into the ground. _I've been a victim of my own fear my whole life. I was too scared to run away when the camp was being destroyed in the old forest, I was too scared to run away from the Tribe of Rushing Water sooner than I did, and I was too scared to stand up for myself. Well, enough of that!_

Smokefrost turned to face Alpha. "I've got a proposition for you." he meowed in an even tone, trying to mask his fear.

"And what might that be?" Alpha sneered contemptuously. "It'll have to be a good one or you'll all die."

"Let my friends and those two down in the arena go free, and I'll fight your best fighter in the arena to the death." Smokefrost meowed without hesitation.

"Smokefrost, no!" Cloud yowled.

"I know what I'm doing, Cloud." Smokefrost refused to look into her eyes for a last time.

"Very well." Alpha purred. He flicked a claw at the arena guards. "Put them in the rows so they can watch his death."

"Who will I be fighting?" Smokefrost forced the tremor from his voice.

"Me." Alpha licked his lips and slowly let his claws slide out.

.

Smokefrost stared at Alpha, ignoring the water lapping his lower legs. _I need to see what move he makes, hold him off long enough to make a good fight, so... so they won't think my death was unfair._

Both toms lunged forwards at the same time, yowling and grappling with each other back and forth. Alpha snapped at Smokefrost's neck, but Smokefrost shunted him abruptly backwards.

Alpha was suddenly gone, and as Smokefrost felt a crushing blow to his lower legs he realized the menacing leader had dove underwater. He twisted sharply. _I suppose we can both play that way._ He took a breath and submerged himself. Twisting in the water and letting his ears break the surface, he scanned the murky waters.

Suddenly sharp claws tore through the remnants of one ear and the still-whole other one, dragging deep scars through them. He yowled in pain and turned around to see Alpha grinning. "Really, I expected a better fight." the black-and-brown tom laughed. "You're dithering like a kittypet!"

Smokefrost refused to let rage consume him and let him rush at Alpha. _That's just what he wants me to do..._ Then he rushed forwards, but at the last second jumped over Alpha and scored deep claw marks down his spine.

Alpha chuckled. "Now you're improving, but I'm afraid it won't be enough to save you." He raised his paws and slammed down into Smokefrost, pinning him in the water. "This was fun, Smokefrost. Now die."

The tom slowly began forcing Smokefrost's head beneath the water with sheer force. _He's toying with me,_ Smokefrost realized dimly as black spots appeared before his eyes.

Suddenly, an ear-splitting roar shook the arena.

"What?" Alpha snapped, looking up. He loosened his grip on Smokefrost, and with a gasp he was able to breathe.

The roar sounded again, and loud pawsteps were heard.

"Not that thing..." Alpha was visibly shaking; his paw slipped from Smokefrost's neck and landing with a plop in the water.

Gray darted forwards into the arena, with Russet close behind him.

"Gray? Russet?" Smokefrost muttered dizzily as he got up. "What're you doing here?"

Then a golden beast burst through the wall behind the two rogues. Hair beamed from around its face like sunlight.

The lion roared with fury and swatted at the Twoleg things the cats were sitting on. Guards scattered as the lion screeched its fury again and slammed its body into the wall. With a roar not unlike that of the lion, the wall crumbled in on itself, collapsing roof and crushing everything in the room. A rock pillar landed in front of Smokefrost, and then debris piled around him until there was only darkness.

The noise of chaos outside continued, but all Smokefrost could see was a crack of sunlight through the top of the pile he was trapped in.

"So..." rasped a voice, and Smokefrost whirled to see Alpha. "This is how it ends..."

Smokefrost was paralyzed with fear as Alpha continued, "My followers will think me dead, and not bother to confirm it. I will die, and so will you, eventually."

Almost sadly, Alpha studied his paw as his claws protruded. "But before I die, I don't think one more death- especially that of one who deserves it- will inflict too great a stain on my conscience. So goodbye, Smokefrost."

He rose his paw and struck a fatal blow.


	24. Chapter 24: The End

**A/N: So I apparently caused a lot of distress with last chapter's ending. Someday I should teach you all poker so you can deal with it... or just get you all straws so you can suck it up...**

 **Okay, I'm joking, I'm not that cruel. I've just wanted to unload those puns on somebody other than my brother.**

 **Shadowman: Yes, yes, whatever.**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: What does 'shaz' mean (if it isn't a nonsense word you just made up to express your acute distress)?**

 **Herp: You really took me seriously when I said I wanted 100 reviews before this was over, didn't you? (trollface)**

Cloud pulled at the pile of debris Smokefrost and Alpha had disappeared under, with the four rogues, Kiara, Gray, Russet, and even Fox and Wolfpaw helping her. She could hear faint meowing from inside, but couldn't make out what they were saying.

Finally, the crack in the top of the mound widened enough for Cloud to see in.

One cat lay in a pool of blood, with the other sitting over him staring at the dead body.

Cloud felt her blood freeze in her veins. _No!_

Then the sitting cat turned and Cloud could see Smokefrost. "I don't understand," he rasped, his eyes tortured. "He said killing another cat before he died, especially one who deserved it, wouldn't put a great stain on his conscience, and then he killed himself..."

Cloud jumped down into the hole with Smokefrost and pressed her muzzle against his side. "It's okay now." she soothed. "We can leave him here."

Smokefrost nodded, as if the idea hadn't occurred to him, and together they left the pit.

Once they were out, Smokefrost turned to Gray and Russet. "How did you two bring in that lion?" he asked. "And why did you help in the first place?"

"Well, a little after you two were gone," Gray glanced at his sister, "Russet gave me a good talking-to and said that you cats were doing something selfless and we should help. And trust me, her tongue is sharper than her claws when it need be. So we found the lion, taunted it and led it to where the arena was, and hoped you would figure out the rest."

"I'm glad you came to help." Smokefrost dipped his head. "Without you we would have been crow-food."

"Meh." Gray shrugged modestly. "It was nothing."

Smokefrost saw the lion, still sitting in the corner of the ruined arena. Yet it wasn't attacking, but it rather seemed as if it was waiting for something.

Taking a deep breath, Smokefrost walked up to the lion. "Thank you for your help." he told the great beast. "You may leave now."

Although he wasn't certain he knew the lion could understand him, for a brief second it almost seemed as if it nodded at him. Then the lion turned and walked out through one of the holes in the wall of the ruined arena.

"It's over." Triffid watched the lion as it walked off through the floodwaters. "Alpha's dead, and without him, his followers will disband and scatter."

"Maybe we can find a better beginning for us now." Smokefrost sighed and halfheartedly splashed his paw in a puddle. "We'll find the kits, then maybe we can make a new home in the forest."

"You can move into the ravine with us if you want." offered Gray.

"Is this the same cat who told us yesterday that we had to go away forever?" asked Mick, turning to Charlie.

Charlie shrugged. "I really don't know, nor care!" He laughed. "I feel, somehow, more free now that Alpha is gone."

"Then let's go." Smokefrost meowed. "We can make a better life for ourselves now."

 _I'm not a Clan cat, nor a rogue._ Smokefrost thought. _I'm sort of... both. Maybe the two halves of my existence can come together if I unite these cats into a sort of rogue Clan? Is that even possible? Maybe it is, if I try._

"Let's go find your kits, Triffid." Smokefrost nodded to the tortoiseshell, and Triffid moved forwards to take the lead as they walked towards the ruined prisons.

 _If I try, I can teach these cats about StarClan, maybe the warrior code, and... I can't hope for a true Clan, but I can get close._ Smokefrost lifted his head and squinted into the darkness.

Like his future, what lay in the darkness was uncertain. But it could be controlled, if he looked hard enough.

 **A/N: There will be an epilogue, and then that will be it for this fic, just so everyone knows.**


	25. Epilogue: Traitor

**A/N: Well, this is the epilogue, and then Smokepaw's Quest is over.**

 **SylviaHunterOfArtemis: I understand that. My cousin doesn't like to swear, so she'll just make up words like that. I know you wanted them to join SkyClan, but I felt that would wrap up too quickly and it wouldn't be neat enough. Plus, I wanted to stick to canon as best as I could (because who says Smokefrost didn't really survive his fall?) The main reason I delayed their decision so much is because I was waiting for Ravenpaw's Farewell to come out so I could see if Smokefrost was listed in the allegiances, but he wasn't, so I chose a different path.**

 **Daughter of Ares: You'll see about the kits part in the epilogue. As for your suggested names for the kits, I shall definitely take them into consideration for the sequel! (Yes, there'll be a sequel.)**

 **Herp: I'm glad you're ready!**

 **Shadowman: I think I fooled everyone there. As for your question about Alpha, it was a little because he wanted to redeem himself, and also a little because the shock of the fall made him realize what he'd done and why it was so bad. In the end, he decided it would be better to die than to go on living like he was.**

The dark brown tom sat in a pool of sunlight. There was barely any light here, except for the occasional shaft of light that managed to find its way through the trees. Yet this was the only place he could communicate with... them.

Behind him, a mist appeared. The tom turned slowly. "You are here, Scourge?"

"As always." snapped the diminutive black tom. "How goes the drowned Twolegplace?"

"Alpha has been overthrown." replied the brown tom, dipping his head in respect. "Smokefrost claims he killed himself."

"I didn't expect that from the fool." Scourge murmured, almost to himself. "I wonder if I will meet him here in the Forest of Silence. If I do, he will die."

"Of course he will, Scourge." the brown tom replied.

"Now, what does Smokefrost plan to do?" Scourge asked.

"Well, we've moved into Gray and Russet's ravine and set up a camp. Smokefrost has organized some of us into 'warriors' and 'apprentices,' and he's made Talon our 'medicine cat,' which apparently means that he heals us and talks with cats in the stars." The dark brown tabby rolled his amber eyes. "He's made Triffid his 'deputy,' which apparently means she'll take over after he dies. He's also trying to teach us about a code of honor he calls the 'warrior code.'"

"What about his mate, Cloud?" Scourge asked.

"She is expecting his kits." The brown tom nodded. "Perhaps we can turn them to our side?"

"Perhaps, perhaps..." Scourge nodded. "What about the remnants of Alpha's forces?"

"I've been going back to the drowned Twolegplace every other night to train them." The dark brown tom giggled crazily. "They are prepared for an attack."

A vicious grin curled on Scourge's lips. "You have been a satisfactory spy, Charlie. Just make sure you don't disappoint me."

"Don't worry." Charlie's eyes burned crazily. "Once we attack, they'll be sorry they ever thought I was a coward!"

 **A/N: The end... of this story! There will be a sequel at some point (there has to be, with an ending like that!)**

 **Before I end this A/N, I'd like to thank Herp for getting us to my hoped number of reviews. I'd also like to thank SylviaHunterOfArtemis for diligently reviewing every chapter when it came out. Thanks to Braveheart, Pebble that Shines, and Titanclaw for giving me some of the first reviews. And finally, thanks to Gustpetal for giving me the idea for Alpha and his gang in the first place.**

 **That's it until the sequel. Goodbye!**


	26. Uh, guys?

**Well, nobody seems to know this, so I'll put it out now: The sequel to Smokepaw's Quest is officially out.**


End file.
